


Timeless

by Klitch



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-01
Updated: 2007-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-20 17:10:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klitch/pseuds/Klitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time there was a child of misfortune and a broken mirror...and a day when snow fell in spring...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. holding breath against the snow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Fairytale Challenge on the Kurofai LJ. Ended up a tad longer than I expected. Loosely based off The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson.

Light reflected off the ice on the walls, and hands worked. Long fingers wove the tiny shining strands of magic and the colors darted off and on across the shining walls. Blue, then green, then a warm pink and a burning red, a cold black and a shining bright yellow and blue again, over and over, repeating.

Hands worked. Fingers played the strings of magic like strings of a harp, weaving and winding and each strand was a piece of light and a musical note. It was almost done. It was almost perfect.

Hands worked. Carefully, carefully. Like lifting a warm pot off the fire that warmed it, careful not to burn the hand or spill the soup. Blue eyes were narrowed in concentration. Almost done. Almost done.

Hands worked, and then something shuddered somewhere, and it _stretched_. There was a cry of frustration and anger and the hands grabbed for the strands as they slipped away from the frantic fingers, first the yellow and then the pink and the green. The red held for some time and drew blood as it snapped. The blue went last, fluttering away like a lost coat, and then black swarmed over the piece.

The black mirror sat perfectly formed for a minute, shaking, and then everything fell away.

Glass broke and scattered, and the man stood bleeding in the darkness, panting and shaking with the effort and disappointment. There was a cry from above. A familiar voice.

He ran, but he knew it was already too late.

Outside, the snow fell.

\--

A warm wind blew, and a girl ran through a crowded cobblestone street. She glanced backwards once, furtively, and then darted into a shop. The bell above the door ringed wildly as she entered. She brushed the dust off her skirt and smiled at the blond man who had just appeared from the back room with a few loaves of fresh-baked bread.

“Ah, Sakura-chan!” The blond man smiled brightly at her. “Good afternoon!”

“Good afternoon, Fai-san!” Sakura ran a hand through her disheveled hair and smelled the air. “That smells delicious!”

“It’s just baked. And what brings you here?” Fai moved over to the counter as he spoke, one hand reaching out to pet the white cat that slept on the end closest to the window.

“Oh, right!” Sakura dug into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small list. “My brother--”

She was cut off by the ringing bell as the door banged open. A brown-haired boy entered, breathing hard.

“My lady, you shouldn’t run off like that!” The boy took a moment to catch his breath. “I almost lost sight of you.”

“Syaoran-kun.” Sakura looked a bit guilty. Fai glanced between the two of them, and his ever-present smile seemed to grow a little wider. “Are you all right? I’m sorry, I was….I was in such a hurry.”

“I’m-I’m okay.” Syaoran still looked a little out of breath but managed a smile anyway. “You shouldn’t run off by yourself, my lady. Lord Touya, your brother, would be upset if anything ever happened to you. It’s my job to--”

“Don’t worry so much, Syaoran-kun,” Fai broke in. “Sakura-chan’s as safe as houses in this town. Now, what brings you two here, hmm?”

“Right, right.” Sakura handed him the list. “It’s from my brother. We’re having a party tomorrow evening and since everyone knows Fai-san makes the best breads and pastries in town I told him I’d bring you the order.”

“Mmm, I see, I see.” Fai nodded, looking over the list.

“Also, um, I thought…” Sakura fidgeted a bit, glancing over at Syaoran out of the corner of her eyes. Fai smiled knowingly.

“There’s a lot of baking I’ll need to do,” Fai said. “Syaoran-kun, could you do me a favor? Kuro-pin’s out back unloading some ingredients he bought for me at the market earlier, would you go help him? Kuro-tan’s _such_ a handful and I might have to send him out again, and the unloading will go quicker if you help. You can go out the back door.”

“All right.” Syaoran nodded to him, bowed quickly to Sakura, and then hurried past Fai towards the back of the shop. Fai leaned on the counter, resting his head on his palms.

“Was there something else you needed, Sakura-chan?”

Sakura craned her head a bit to see past him, just to be sure Syaoran was out of sight, then leaned in close.

“The party tomorrow, it’s—it’s for my birthday,” she explained in a hushed voice. “And Syaoran-kun, you see, Syaoran-kun doesn’t know when his birthday is. So I told him his would be the same as mine, because Syaoran-kun should have a birthday. And he says I shouldn’t get him anything because he’s just a servant, but I—I wanted to…” She trailed off, blushing.

“Don’t worry, Sakura-chan.” Fai straightened, patting her on the head. “Now, I’ll have some work to do tonight to get everything on this list done and ready by tomorrow, and I’m sure when I have Kuro-rin deliver we’ll need a little something extra to be delivered straight to you, yes?” Sakura’s face brightened and Fai beamed back at her. At the window, the white cat looked up at them both for a minute, flicked its tail, then turned over and went back to sleep.

“Thank you so much, Fai-san!” Sakura said. “How much do you want for it, I should--”

“No extra charge,” Fai replied. “You’re one of my best customers, Sakura-chan. It’s on the house.”

“If you keep giving away free food, you’ll have no money left,” a voice grumbled from behind him. Fai turned his head as a tall, broad-shouldered man stepped through the door, followed dutifully by Syaoran.

“Kuro-tan!” Fai chirped happily.

“I told you to stop calling me that!” the other man snapped.

“Kurogane-san and I finished bringing in the ingredients,” Syaoran reported as he rounded the counter to stand by Sakura.

“Thank you, Syaoran-kun, that was a big help.” Fai gave a sigh of long-suffering. “Syaoran-kun’s such a good, dependable worker, but all I usually have to help me is stupid Kuro-pin, who’s always complaining. It’s not fair.”

“I wouldn’t complain if you would _call me by my full name, dammit_!” Kurogane growled.

“Now, if that’s all you need,” Fai said cheerfully, ignoring the smoldering man at his side, “I’d better get started on this order. You can tell Touya-san I’ll collect the payment when Kuro-pan brings you the food. And the ‘special’ order will be ready, too.” Fai accompanied this last with a wink. “Is 4:00 a good time for delivery?”

Sakura nodded. The children said their goodbyes and headed back out the door, Sakura dragging Syaoran behind her, keeping a firm grip on his hand.

“What was that about?” Kurogane asked after they’d gone.

“Just doing a good deed,” Fai said lightly, laughing. “Don’t look so _stiff_ , Kuro-kichi. Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun are good kids, you should be happy. Smile, smile!” He darted around Kurogane, waving his hands.

“If you touch me, I will kill you,” Kurogane hissed warningly.

“Kuro-pin is mean.” Fai pouted. “I should _fire_ you. You shouldn’t threaten the person who pays your wages, Kuro-rin.”

“I should quit, and then see who you get to drag the bags of flour back to the shop,” Kurogane countered, crossing his arms. “Not to mention deliver the food.”

“But if you quit, you wouldn’t have any money and you’d starve, right?” Fai wandered away from the other man, idly petting the white cat as he went. “Kuro-pin _would_ starve all alone, wouldn’t he, Mokona? And I bet he’d be lonely without me.” Mokona the cat kept sleeping.

“Like hell I would!” Kurogane snapped. “And it’s _Kurogane_. Can’t you at least say it right once?”

“But Kuro-pin is a much cuter name,” Fai said simply. “I can’t have a big, hulking black thing working in my shop and scaring my customers. But if I give you a cute name, you’re not so scary anymore. That’s why you’re ‘Kuro-rin’!”

“Don’t call me that!”

Fai laughed again, leaning against the wall and looking out the window. There was a long pause, and when he spoke again there was something wistful in his voice.

“Say, Kuro-tan…how long have you lived here? Before I got here?”

“A couple years.” Kurogane shrugged, watching Fai with sharp eyes. In the month and a half he’d been working at this shop, he’d rarely seen its proprietor so oddly serious.

“Does it snow here, in the winter?”

“Sometimes.” Kurogane shrugged. “Not much. Why?”

 

“I was just wondering. Because it’s such a nice spring day, and I wondered…” Fai shook his head, laughing softly. “Winter shouldn’t come in a place like this. I just wondered if it did.”

He turned back to Kurogane and this time the usual smile was firmly back in place.

“Well, it’s going to be a busy day. I’ll need some help. Now, Kuro-pi’s no good with cooking, so I’ll need you to go get me more ingredients.” Fai’s smile had fangs in it. “ _Heavy_ ingredients.”

Kurogane sighed and wondered, not for the first time, why he had ever taken this job in the first place.

\--

Cold wind blew over the hills, softly. Something glittering was carried along with it.

Fai glanced up from where he stood in the back room of the shop, pausing in the middle of kneading a lump of dough. His eyes were heavy with frost.

Something was coming.

Fai shook his head as if trying to clear something away, and went back to his baking.

\--

Sakura sat on the hill outside the manor house, smelling the flowers and looking down at the small sparkling lights from the town below. The sun had set some time ago, and she could see the stars above. A small package was still clutched at her side, and she shifted a little nervously.

“Lady Sakura?” Syaoran approached carefully. Sakura smiled at him and gestured for him to sit down beside her.

“Did you enjoy the party, Syaoran-kun?”

“Your brother did a very good job planning it,” Syaoran said. “Shouldn’t you be inside, my lady? Lord Touya will wonder where you’ve gone and it’s getting late.”

“I wanted to come out and see the flowers,” Sakura said. “You know, Syaoran-kun…sometimes I think I can hear them. The flowers, I mean. When I was little, there was only one out here, a little lily. And I kept hearing a voice saying ‘I’m lonely, I’m lonely.’ So I asked my father and he said that if I couldn’t stand that lonely voice, I should always try my best to make it feel happier. So I planted all these flowers, so the lily wouldn’t be so lonely anymore.” She glanced at Syaoran out of the corner of her eye. “And you helped me plant them, too. Remember, Syaoran-kun? My father had just hired your father to archive the library and we used to go everywhere together. We were out here all day, planting flowers.”

“I remember.” Syaoran smiled slightly. “My father was really happy when I came back inside, even though my clothes were dirty. I didn’t really know why.”

“Your father was a kind person,” Sakura said. “And he gave you that book the next day, remember? The one with all the flower names in it, so we’d know what we’d planted when they finally started to grow.”

“Mm.” Syaoran nodded. Sakura shifted in the grass, clutching at the little package hidden at her side.

“Syaoran-kun…do you remember how you told me -- how you told me you never knew when your birthday was, because your father had found you in an orphanage and I—I said I’d give you a birthday, remember?’ The words tumbled out in a rush. “And I gave you my birthday so we could celebrate together and since it’s my birthday it’s yours too and I want you to have this.” Sakura half-shoved the package into his hands.

“M-my Lady, I…” Syaoran stammered, going immediately red in the face. Unsure what to say, he opened the little package. Inside was a small sugar-glazed pastry.

“I know it’s not a cake or a big fancy party but I wanted to….” Sakura trailed off. “Is—is it okay?”

“Lady Sakura…” Syaoran swallowed and nodded. “Thank you very much. But you didn’t have to.”

“I _wanted_ to,” Sakura said firmly. “And—and I don’t want you to call me ‘Lady Sakura’ anymore, either, and I won’t call you ‘Syaoran-kun.’ We’ve know each other since we were little! I’m going to call you ‘Syaoran’ from now on, and you’ll call me ‘Sakura,’ okay?”

“My Lady…”

“‘Sakura!’”

Syaoran looked at her determined face and nodded.

“All right. L—Sak--” A cool gust of wind suddenly blew by, and Sakura thought she saw something sparkling a moment before Syaoran collapsed, clutching at his right eye.

“Syaoran!” Sakura jumped to her feet. “Syaoran, what’s wrong? Syaoran!”

Syaoran couldn’t speak, still clutching at his tightly shut eye, and Sakura turned and ran for the house, yelling for help. Syaoran’s eye cracked open.

Inside the brown eye, a hint of blue began to spread.

\--

“Why the hell do you need me for this?” Kurogane grumbled as he helped Fai set the fresh loaves of bread out on the shelves. The shop had only been open for an hour or so and outside the sky was gray and overcast.

“Because it goes faster if you help,” Fai replied brightly. “Besides, Kuro-pon will get lazy if he sleeps in every day!”

“Don’t call me--” Kurogane was cut off as the front door flung open and a figure stepped inside.

“Sakura-chan?” Fai immediately dropped the remaining loaves onto a shelf and hurried towards where the girl stood in front of the door. She was shaking slightly and her face was wet. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Sakura said, gasping for breath. Her face was pale. “I’m sorry, Fai-san, I know it’s early but I—I don’t know who else I can talk to and—and something’s wrong!”

“It’s all right, Sakura-chan, calm down. What is it? What’s wrong?” Fai led the girl over to a chair and gently pushed her into it and then knelt down beside her. Mokona the white cat jumped onto her lap and the girl held him close. Kurogane leaned against the wall and watched.

“Oh, Fai-san, it’s awful! Something’s wrong with Syaoran-kun!”

“What happened?” Fai’s voice was gentle, but Kurogane couldn’t see his face.

“I don’t know!” Sakura burst out, clutching Mokona closer to her chest. “It was two nights ago…I was about to give him the present you made for me and—and I’m not sure what happened. He just fell suddenly and grabbed at his eyes, like something was hurting him. And I ran and got my brother and Yukito-san and they called the doctor in, but no one could find anything wrong. But one of his eyes has turned blue.”

“Blue.” It was a statement, not a question, and there was a strange note in Fai’s voice. Kurogane leaned forward a bit, trying to see the other man’s face.

“And…and he’s acting different.” Sakura fidgeted a bit in her chair, running her hands over Mokona’s ears. “The night of my birthday…I _almost_ got him to call me by name. But when he woke up the next day, he started calling me “Lady Sakura’ again, and when I just called him ‘Syaoran,’ he told me not to. He didn’t yell or sound angry, he was just…cold. And all yesterday, he was acting the same way, like he didn’t even know who I was. He never even smiled at me to let me know he was all right. He’s just been…I don’t know. It’s like he’s not Syaoran-kun anymore, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Have you told your brother?” Fai asked. His voice sounded kind and gentle, but to Kurogane there seemed to be a strange, hollow cast to it, as though the other man was telling a very careful lie.

“Yes,” Sakura said. “But the doctor looked at Syaoran-kun and so did Yukito-san, and they can’t find anything wrong with him. But Yukito-san said…he said he thinks something _did_ happen, he just can’t figure out what. And I just don’t…” Sakura shook her head miserably. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You said something got in his eye, right?” Fai asked as he stood. From where he stood, Kurogane could finally see the other man’s face. Fai’s expression was grim, and his eyes were very far away.

“Yes,” Sakura replied. “Do you think it was some kind of—of poison, or something? What if it’s hurting him, and there’s nothing I can do?”

“Don’t worry so much, Sakura-chan,” Fai said, smiling gently. The smile looked fake to Kurogane’s eyes, but Sakura didn’t seem to notice. “I’m sure there’s something that can be done. Here, why don’t you eat something? You look like you haven’t had anything in days.” Fai brought her a warm pastry and a glass of milk, which Sakura took gratefully.

They talked for some time more after that. Fai remained eternally reassuring and kind, but the more he spoke, the more Kurogane doubted every word the man said. There was something wrong with the blond man’s voice, a tone that Kurogane couldn’t remember hearing before but that he decidedly didn’t like.

At last Sakura seemed to have been cheered up a bit and Fai sent her on her way with a kind wave. He remained standing at the window for a moment after that, watching as the girl disappeared down the street.

Kurogane crossed his arms and waited.

“Hey, Kuro-rin,” Fai said at last, and his voice was subdued and more serious than Kurogane could ever remember hearing it before. “I think I’ll close the store early today. You should go home.”

“It’s still early,” Kurogane replied mildly. He nodded towards the door. “Do you know what she walking talking about? The thing that happened to the kid?”

“Hmm?” Fai’s face was all calculated innocence. “I’m just a baker, Kuro-tan. Why would I know anything about that sort of thing?”

“Because you don’t act like a baker,” Kurogane said firmly, looking straight into Fai’s eyes. “You weren’t surprised when she told you what happened.”

“I heard things when I was traveling,” Fai said dismissively, moving away from the window and heading towards the back room. “That’s all it was, so you don’t have to make that sort of face. It’ll give you wrinkles, Kuro-ki.” Fai sailed lightly past him, the false smile pasted firmly on his face.

Kurogane grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.

“Why did you want to close early?” Kurogane gazed steadily into Fai’s surprised face. The blond man stood there for a moment, then his face hardened alarmingly and he pulled away.

“Just a feeling.” Fai kept walking, his back to Kurogane. His voice had changed again, and there was something miserable lurking beneath the layers of false cheer. “Stay inside tonight, Kuro-pi. There’s going to be a snow tonight that no one should be out in.”

“It’s too late in the season for snow.”

“Is it?” Fai gave a hollow laugh as he disappeared into the back of the shop. “Well…strange things happen.”

\--

The sky was dark outside, and Sakura sat awake in her room.

Syaoran was still acting strange. When she returned from talking with Fai, he had been standing outside watching the clouds. He had barely returned her greeting before deliberately turning away from her, trampling the flowers as he went back inside.

“There must be something I can do,” Sakura whispered to the empty room. Her eyes traveled to the package sitting on her dresser. Syaoran’s present, which had been forgotten after he’d collapsed outside. Sakura had brought it with her when she went to see him after he woke up, but he hadn’t even looked at it. Still, Sakura couldn’t bring herself to get rid out it.

“I’ll give it to him when he’s better,” she told herself firmly. _When_ , not _if_. “I’ll give it to him then.”

A frigid wind blew in from the window and Sakura shivered. It was strange for the night to be so cold this time of year. She slid out of bed and padded towards the window, intending to close it, but stopped when she saw what was happening outside.

Snow was falling.

“How strange,” Sakura murmured. “It never snows at this time of year. It’s already covering the ground.”

The moonlight reflected off the snow on the ground below, and that was when she noticed a figure moving resolutely towards town.

“Syaoran-kun?” Sakura leaned out the window to get a better look. He was nearly out of sight, but somehow she _knew_ it was him.

Sakura grabbed her shoes and a coat, and quietly exited the house, following the footprints in the snow.

\--

It was late, but Kurogane was still awake, polishing his sword. It had been a long time since he’d used it, since he’d felt the need to hold it in his hands.

He’d been a mercenary, once. It wasn’t hard work and it had paid well, but at some point he’d just gotten bored. So he’d left and ended up in this stupid little town where few people needed a bodyguard and fewer carried a sword. He’d gone to the manor house at first to apply for a job as one of Lord Touya’s guards, but he’d been informed that the house was well-protected with its current roster, thank you, and the door had been all but slammed in his face.

Which was when he’d seen the ‘Hiring’ sign in the window of a small shop. Kurogane still didn’t know why he’d gone in and he certainly didn’t know why he’d _stayed_ , after the owner had immediately latched onto him like a leech, chattering aimlessly. Kurogane knew he should’ve left the first time the word ‘Kuro-tan’ was uttered. But he hadn’t. He’d taken the job doing manual labor for a crazed blond baker and he’d kept working, even as his employer continued to call him by ridiculous nicknames and demand that he smile more.

It wasn’t the type of job he had ever expected to find himself working at, but somehow it wasn’t so bad.

Kurogane gazed at his old sword thoughtfully. He never used it now, other than for the occasional practice run just to make sure his skills were still sharp (and besides, there was something very satisfying about stabbing a bale of hay and pretending that it had blond hair, blue eyes and a stupid smile) but it was still his most important possession.

He thought of Fai’s grim face and found himself gripping the sword just a bit harder.

The idiot was hiding something, that much was obvious. Kurogane just wasn’t sure what. So he polished his sword and stared out the window, thinking.

When he saw the snow start to fall he stood up and, with his sword at his side, walked out into the snow and listened.

It was far too quiet outside. There seemed to be no one on the streets. Not even a stray cat could be seen. Kurogane tensed up and wasn’t sure why. Something in the cold air warned him to be on his guard.

He wasn’t sure how long he stood out there in the snow before he heard the noise. A soft jingling of bells and a strange whistling of the wind, almost impossible to hear even in the silence. Kurogane strained hard to hear it, and then looked up.

Something was moving in the sky. As it got closer Kurogane could see it more clearly, and what he saw made him wonder if he was having a very odd dream. Shining silver in the moonlight, a beautiful sleigh cut through the sky pulled by strange-looking creatures, wolves made of snow and white wind, only half-seen, with tassels and tiny silver bells on their harnesses. A single figure sat in the sleigh, but from the distance Kurogane couldn’t make out its features. The sleigh arched as it came near, headed towards the town square.

Kurogane pulled out his sword and followed.

The town square was dark, but as the sleigh came closer the lamps lit, one by one, casting eerie shadows on the snow. Kurogane pressed himself into the shadows on the edges of the square and crouched down, watching.

There was no noise as the sleigh touched lightly down. The man riding inside rose slowly, long black hair flowing over his shoulders. His glittering golden eyes surveyed the land before him and he extended a hand forward, as if greeting someone, but he did not speak.

Another figure appeared, moving steadily towards the outstretched hand. As the person got closer Kurogane recognized Syaoran, the boy’s face uncharacteristically cold and grim. One eye had indeed turned an icy blue.

Syaoran walked straight past the strange wolves until he stood before the dark-haired man. The man made a gesture with one hand and Syaoran bowed low before him. The wind blew, and the snowfall grew thicker. Kurogane couldn’t suppress a shiver of a cold, but the two standing in the lit square seemed to feel nothing.

Syaoran stood then, and the black-haired man led him towards the sleigh.

“Syaoran-kun!” A voice broke the silence of the scene. Syaoran didn’t pause as he climbed into the back of the sleigh, but the dark-haired man turned to look as Sakura appeared, out of breath and still in her nightgown, wearing only a light coat and a pair of boots.

The black-haired man stared hard at her but did not speak. His expression was imperious and unmoving, with neither malice nor kindness marring his smooth features. If not for the way his hair and clothes moved in the wind, Kurogane might have mistook him for a statue. Sakura paused for a moment, then seemed to gather her courage and stepped forward.

“Please.” Her voice was a thin shadow of itself. “I don’t know who you are, but…please. Where are you taking Syaoran-kun?”

The man didn’t reply. His brow furrowed as she moved closer and suddenly he raised a hand. Ice gathered around his fingertips.

“Sakura-chan.” Another voice cut through the night, and the dark-haired man lowered his hand. Kurogane could only stare as a tall, slim figure melted out of the shadows and made its way into the square.

“Fai-san?” Sakura’s voice was uncertain, as if she wasn’t sure who it was she was seeing.

Fai was dressed in the same clothes he had been wearing that morning, save for the addition of a fur-lined cloak. His face was carefully cheerful as he looked at her, and Kurogane felt a growl rising in his throat.

“It’s too cold a night for a young girl to be out alone, Sakura-chan,” Fai said. “Why don’t you go home? You look tired.”

“Fai-san, I—I don’t understand.” Sakura looked back and forth from Fai to Syaoran and back again. “What’s going on?”

“What _is_ going on?” Kurogane took the moment to make his entrance, sword at the ready. Fai’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Kuro-pon.” His voice was hoarse and it took him a moment to recover. A wry smile crept across his face. “You never listen to me, do you, Kuro-pi? I told you it was a bad night to be out.”

“You did. Because you knew.” Kurogane moved so that he was between Sakura and Fai. “Where are you taking the kid?”

“Somewhere far away.” Fai stepped closer to the sled. His eyes were dark and hooded, and his expression unreadable. “You’re better off going back home, Kuro-rin. Take Sakura-chan and leave this place, and forget.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kurogane growled. “Give the kid back and then tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I can’t do that.” Fai looked as though he was going to say more, but at that moment the black-haired man moved forward, pressing a finger against Fai’s lips. Fai looked surprised for a moment, then closed his eyes.

“King Ashura…” It was a mere breath of word, and then Fai fell to his knees in a bow. The black-haired man, King Ashura, placed a hand on his head as he walked past the blond, towards where Kurogane stood. Kurogane raised his sword, still aware of Sakura standing behind him.

“Don’t hurt them,” Fai said softly, and King Ashura raised a hand.

Ice dotted the edges of Kurogane’s vision, and then everything went dark.

\--

“Kurogane-san! Kurogane-san!”

He could hear a voice. Kurogane was vaguely aware of someone shaking him, and of something cold and wet seeping through his clothes.

And then he remembered snow and a man with black hair and Syaoran with one blue eye. Remembered Fai standing in the moonlight with wide eyes, bowing low.

Kurogane opened his eyes, and Sakura was there. Her face was flushed with the cold and her hair was wet. The lights in the square had gone out, and Kurogane wondered how long he’d been asleep.

“Where is he?” he growled. “Where’d that bastard go?”

“I don’t know.” Sakura shook her head. “That man – the one in the sled – I saw him raise his hand and I saw you fall in front of me, and then I just felt so sleepy. And when I woke up he was gone and Syaoran-kun was gone -- and Fai-san, too.” She bit her lip. “I don’t understand. Fai-san’s always been so kind to me. But he knew that man, the one who took Syaoran-kun away.” Her face grew suddenly determined. “I’m going to find him.”

“Eh?”

“Syaoran-kun. I have to go find him!”

“You don’t know where he went,” Kurogane pointed out.

“Before I fell asleep, I saw them go,” Sakura said. “Fai-san and that other man climbed back into the sleigh and then it went in the air again. I saw which way it was headed just before I passed out. I can start following in that direction and then I’m sure I’ll find someone who saw them pass. There must be someone who saw where they’ve taken Syaoran-kun. I’m going to find him and bring him back.”

“I’m going with you,” Kurogane said and didn’t even realize it until the words were out of his mouth.

“Kurogane-san?”

“It’s a pain, but I’ll go with you,” Kurogane repeated. “There are bandits on the road, and you don’t know how far you have to go. And I have a blond idiot who’s going to have to answer some questions once I catch up to him.”

“Kurogane-san…thank you.” Sakura stood, wiping the snow off her dress. “We should get moving--”

“Don’t be stupid,” Kurogane said, not unkindly. “You’re not even dressed and we don’t have any supplies. You can’t just run off unprepared. And you need to tell your brother.”

“But if I tell him, he’ll make me stay here!” Sakura argued.

“I’m not having his troops come and arrest me for kidnapping his little sister,” Kurogane stated. “You talk to him and get us some horses. I’ll get what supplies I can, and I’ll meet you at the bakery first thing in the morning.”

“But…” Sakura’s voice trailed off miserably. “All right. In the morning.”

\--

The scenery flashed by far below and Fai lay in the sleigh at King Ashura’s feet, his head resting in the king’s lap. There was no sound but the whistling of the wind and the soft tinkling of bells.

Where they traveled, snow fell, and Fai could not recognize anything below them. Even so, he knew there were moving closer towards home. King Ashura’s wolves moved like the wind, and nothing could match their speed when all their master’s will was set upon them. Fai’s eyes were drawn to the boy sitting silent in the back of the sleigh.

He remembered Sakura’s betrayed voice and Kurogane’s angry gaze, and looked away.

King Ashura ran a hand through his hair, and Fai reached up to clasp the king’s hand in his own, moving his face upwards to look into King Ashura’s.

“I’m sure this time it will work,” Fai said softly. King Ashura gave no response, his face as cold and impassive as ice. “We won’t fail this time, I promise. I will get your heart back.”

King Ashura kissed his hand, and they rode on in silence.

\--

Kurogane lay half-asleep in a chair leaning against the far wall of the bakery. He hadn’t bothered to go back home the night before, instead making his way to the closed shop and letting himself in. The shop seemed somehow cold and lifeless without its proprietor, and Mokona the cat mewed piteously as Kurogane entered the store and began placing the leftover bread in a knapsack. He’d fallen asleep in the chair some hours later, his sword sheathed at his side.

He could feel the rising sun on his face but remained in the chair. The breeze that blew through the window was strangely warm, as if there had been no snow the night before. Kurogane half-expected Fai to come bursting into the shop at any moment, chiding him for sleeping in such an uncomfortable position that would no doubt leave him cranky all day, as if the night before had only been a dream.

Someone banged on the locked door and Kurogane opened one eye, wondering if he should bother going to check and see who it was. The person outside knocked again, and he rose reluctantly. Mokona appeared from out of nowhere and curled around his feet as he made his way to the door.

Sakura stood outside, wearing a warm cloak and carrying a knapsack over her shoulder. She was leading a pair of horses and looking around furtively, as if to make sure no one had seen her.

“You’re early,” Kurogane remarked.

“We should go,” Sakura said earnestly. “The trail must be getting cold.”

Kurogane raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“Did you tell your brother?”

“I left him a note,” Sakura said defiantly. Kurogane wondered if he should just close the door on her. “He wouldn’t let me go if I told him! I left a note for him and for Yukito-san too. I’m sure Yukito-san will keep him from sending anyone after me.”

“But we should go before he wakes up,” Kurogane finished darkly. “All right.” He went to retrieve his own supplies, wondering grimly why he had ever agreed to this.

“Mokona,” Sakura murmured as the cat padded towards her. She picked the cat up and stroked its fur. “Do you want to come with us?”

“We are _not_ taking the damn cat,” Kurogane said firmly.

“But I’m sure he misses Fai-san,” Sakura said. “I don’t want to leave him alone.”

“It’s on your head,” Kurogane said. He eyed the horses clinically. “Can you ride them?”

“I know how!” Sakura said, looking a little annoyed. She turned away from him and stared off into the distance.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Kurogane asked her.

“Yes,” Sakura replied. Her voice was serious, and it somehow didn’t quite suit her. “I have to find Syaoran-kun. I just can’t sit around and do nothing. I have to find him!” Her hands clutched at her knapsack. “I brought him his birthday present, too. When we find him, I’m going to give it to him and this time he’ll call me by name. I know he will.”

Kurogane watched her for a long moment before nodding.

“Then we’d better get going. Lead the way, Lady.”

\--

The castle was shining and cold, and Syaoran sat on the floor in the throne room, surrounded by innumerable sheets of thin glass. He moved them about in strange patterns, never speaking, his eyes intent. He seemed to notice neither the cold nor the bleached white bones that adorned the lower half of the throne room like grim statues.

On the dais overlooking the room, King Ashura sat on his regal throne, imperious and cold like stone. Fai knelt at his side, looking down.

“Keep working, Syaoran-kun,” Fai murmured. He looked up at King Ashura. “He’s doing well, my king. He might be able to fix it.” Fai rose slightly so that his face was level with King Ashura’s. “You’ll wake up soon. It will only be a little while longer, so just wait.”

King Ashura took his hand and gazed at him impassively. Fai closed his eyes and  
tried to turn away, but King Ashura’s hands reached up and turned his face.

“King Ashura?” Fai breathed and King Ashura gestured towards a raised ice tablet that hung on the wall. Something flickered within the ice and then a picture appeared, of two familiar figures on horseback. Fai’s breath caught in his throat and King Ashura ran a hand along the side of the blond man’s face.

“Yes, I understand.” Fai closed his eyes and nodded. “I won’t let them interfere.”

\--  


The sun was beginning to set, and Kurogane could see that Sakura’s strength was waning. She was trying to keep a brave face, but he could see she was paler than before, and her white hands clutched the reins of her horse far too tightly. Mokona, sitting in front of her, was hunched down miserably.

“We should stop for the night,” Kurogane said.

“No!” Sakura said, too quickly. “I’m—I’m all right, Kurogane-san. We should keep going. Who knows how far away they might be by now?”

“And they might have already gone in another direction,” Kurogane pointed out. “The snow from last night was melted by morning. All we know is which way they were going when they left.”

“If only there was someone to ask,” Sakura said, frustrated. “But all I’ve seen since we left town is forest!”

“We can’t ride all night,” Kurogane said. “If we’re going in the wrong direction, we’re just getting farther away from where we want to be.”

“But--” Sakura was cut off by a bright, happy voice.

“You’re wonderful!”

Sakura squeaked in surprise and reined her horse to a stop as a girl suddenly appeared out of the bushes, carrying a basket of flowers.

“Here, you should have this!” The girl held out a flower. “It would look so beautiful in your hair.”

“Th-thank you,” Sakura said, a little overwhelmed.

“Hey,” Kurogane spoke up. “Girl. Did it snow here last night?”

“Yes, it did.” The girl looked at him in confusion. “But it was mostly melted by this morning when I woke up.”

“Then we’re going the right way!” Sakura said happily. “Did you see anyone traveling? A boy and two men, in a sleigh?”

“I’m afraid not,” the girl said, shaking her head. “But one of my servants might have. My cottage is nearby. It’s so late, if you don’t have anywhere to go you can stay the night.”

“That would be wonderful!” Sakura said. “Thank you very much. My name is Sakura, and this is Kurogane-san.”

“I’m Tomoyo.” The girl smiled brightly. “Please, follow me.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kurogane asked Sakura as they followed Tomoyo. “This could be a trap.”

“But Tomoyo-chan seems so kind,” Sakura said. “Don’t worry, Kurogane-san. I’m sure everything will turn out okay.”

Kurogane snorted, but continued following after Tomoyo.

“My cottage is just ahead,” Tomoyo said after a while, swinging her basket of flowers as she turned to smile at Sakura. “I’m so glad I found you! There’s no one else who lives nearby, and I couldn’t have you sleeping outside in the mud and the dark like this.”

“Thank you,” Sakura murmured, turning a bit red at all the praise.

“Ah, here we are.” Tomoyo led them through a particularly thick group of bushes into a clearing.

Kurogane and Sakura stared. Tomoyo’s house was at least twice the size of Sakura’s manor house.

“ _That’s_ a cottage?” Kurogane muttered.

“I’m home,” Tomoyo said cheerfully to the pair of armored guards standing outside the door. One of them took her basket of flowers from her and she turned to wave to Sakura and Kurogane. “Please, come inside! It’ll be getting cold soon, you shouldn’t be out. I’ll have someone take your horses.”

“This was good luck, right?” Sakura said a bit sheepishly to Kurogane as they dismounted.

Kurogane looked at the large house and Tomoyo’s worshipful gaze (fixed firmly on Sakura) and sighed.

“Good luck. Right.”

\--

It was a surprisingly good night’s sleep, Sakura had to admit as she climbed out of the soft bed Tomoyo had provided for her. She’d been up late the night before as Tomoyo led her around the house, meeting all the servants in an attempt to discover if anyone had seen anything the night the snow fell. So far there had been no luck, though Tomoyo had taken her hands and stated that she was certain Sakura would find out something soon.

A servant was waiting for her when she exited the room, and the woman led Sakura into a large kitchen where Tomoyo was waiting for her with a hot breakfast. Kurogane was already there, looking irritable. Mokona the cat was sitting on the floor eagerly eating its own breakfast.

“Did you sleep well?” Tomoyo asked. Sakura nodded, and she beamed. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve had my servants gather up some more supplies for your trip, just in case. They’re loading your horses now, so there should be plenty of time for you to eat before you need to leave.” She leaned forward suddenly and clasped Sakura’s hands. “And I hope you don’t mind, but please, would you let me do something for you? I saw that you didn’t have very many changes of clothing, so I spent last night making you some wonderful traveling clothes. Please, will you take them?”

“Tomoyo-chan.” Sakura was a little overwhelmed, but she managed a smile. “Of course I will!” Tomoyo’s smile lit up her face. “But Tomoyo-chan…why are you doing all this for us? You don’t even know us!”

“Because you seemed like such a kind person,” Tomoyo said. “I live alone out here you know, with only my servants, and travelers come by all the time, so I’ve decided to help any kind person who passes. And you looked so cute on your horse last night, I just couldn’t resist helping you!” She was practically glowing. Sakura gave a nervous laugh.

“Is—is there anything else I can do for you?” Sakura asked. Tomoyo looked at her curiously. “It’s just…you’ve helped us so much. Can’t I do something to help you?”

“Wearing my clothes makes me happy enough,” Tomoyo said. She paused thoughtfully. “Though if you’d like, after you eat, would you water my flowers? I’ll have one of my servants show you where the garden is. They’ll grow best when someone like you waters them, I’m sure.”

Sakura finished breakfast quickly and one of the servants led her to the garden while Tomoyo went to put the finishing touches on her outfits. Kurogane followed Sakura with a bored look on his face.

“The garden is through here, miss.” The servant led Sakura to a large wooden door and bowed quickly before leaving.

“Do we really have time for this?” Kurogane muttered.

“I want to do something nice for Tomoyo-chan,” Sakura said, picking up the watering can. “It won’t take long.”

She opened the door and stared. Tomoyo’s garden was huge, with flowers of all kinds and colors stretching far off into the distance.

“It’s beautiful,” Sakura murmured. She dropped to her knees in front of a small patch of lilies, admiring the colors. “They remind me of the flowers outside my house…the ones Syaoran-kun and I planted…”

An old memory flickered in her mind, and suddenly Sakura thought she could hear something in the distance.

“You okay?” Kurogane’s voice faded into the background as Sakura leaned closer to the flowers.

She could _hear_ them.

It was faint at first, just a single voice, but after a moment the noise grew, as each of the flowers sang to her in its own voice, all of them leaning forward as if longing to speak to her.

“Did the snow fall on you too?” Sakura quietly asked one of the lilies.

 _We all have stories,_ the lily whispered back. _Every flower carries a story. Every flower hears something._

“Do you know where Syaoran-kun is?” Sakura said.

 _Once upon a time, there was a child of misfortune,_ another lily said. _He lived in a land of ice and snow, in a small town of brave hunters and proud women. The child was cursed with fair looks and cunning eyes and a power deep and strong that controlled all around it. Destruction reigned wherever this child went, avalanches and blizzards, children falling through ice and drowning in cold waters below. The townspeople named him a cursed child and locked him up in a high tower until they could discover how to deal with him, and even his mother allowed them to do so, for she too was afraid. So the child remained in the tower for many long months until his body was bruised from neglect and his hair grew long and tangled. And finally the town elders met and made a decision, and so all the townspeople drove the unfortunate child from the town, and sent him cold and raggedly clad into the wild winter and the howling winds and never thought of him again._

The sad little story made Sakura bite her lip, but it wasn’t the story she was looking for. She moved on to a pretty pink tulip.

“Have you seen Syaoran-kun?”

 _Once upon a time,_ the flower said in its high sweet voice, _there was a king who controlled the winter. He lived in a castle in a land where the snow fell eternally. Yet despite this cold land the king was blessed with a warm heart and strong soldiers who loved him and guarded his proud castle from all who would attempt to slay him and stop the spread of winter, for there were many who did not understand that winter must come with its death so that spring can begin its rebirth. For you see, every now and then the king would send out his wolves to bring winter to places where winter should be, and every now and then the wolves would return fleeing the coming of spring and would lay at the king’s feet as he breathed the life back into them. So this went and so the king lived in this world where flowers grew even when snow fell, and then one day a wolf returned from a place high and far where spring only rarely came. In its mouth this wolf carried a thin and wretched child in tattered clothes, which it presented to the king. The boy was pale and blue with cold but breathed steadily on, and the king took the boy in and gave him fine warm clothes and delicious food, and then the king used his great powers and healed the old wounds and the frostbitten fingers and cut the child’s long hair and made a prince of him._

“That’s a very nice story,” Sakura told the flower. “But I’m afraid it’s no help.” She moved down the line to a little patch of daisies. “Please, have you seen Syaoran-kun?”

 _Once upon a time,_ the daisies spoke in tandem, their voices mild and lilting, _there was a child of misfortune who grew into a man, and a king who lived in a land of snow. The child who became a man had great powers and the king had greater ones, and so the king taught the man how to control his powers, which the man thought could only bring misfortune. In the land of ice and snow everything was white and shining and though the king seemed content, the man wished he could show the king something truly beautiful which could not exist where only snow was. So the man decided to use his powers, which, recall, could bring only misfortune. And in his zeal to create something truly beautiful for the king, the man overstepped the limits of his own power and created a mirror which was meant to show everything to be beautiful and colorful but instead made everything black and ugly and filled with a deeper cold than the snow. The cold black mirror shattered and the brave loyal soldiers who filled the castle were frozen by its power, and the animals and the birds that lived in the kingdom of snow were frozen, and this land became a timeless land. The shards of the mirror flew far and fast, and the largest of these fragments was imbedded in the heart of the snow king, and so once again the power of misfortune touched all._

This was still not the story she was looking for, so Sakura moved on to a bright little marigold.

“Have you seen Syaoran-kun?”

 _Once upon a time, the snow fell and the wind blew,_ the marigold said in a voice like a ringing bell. _And with it the wind blew sparkling shards that froze the heart. A boy and a girl sat on a hill watching the sunset, and one of these shards, which were ice and darkness and poison to what they touched, landed in the eye of the boy and his eye turned blue there. And so the boy was struck with pain and the girl too was struck with her own pain, and everything became very dark and cold. Then, one night the snow fell though it was spring, and the boy wandered away from the girl who loved him into a town square lit up in the night. And there the snow king appeared and took the boy with him, and where they went the snow fell behind them. They traveled far to the west past the house of the witch, and there the flowers lost them and they were seen no more._

“That must be Syaoran-kun!” Sakura exclaimed. “I’m trying to find him. Please, flower-san, don’t you know where they went?”

 _They traveled far to the west past the house of the witch, and there the flowers lost them,_ the marigold repeated. _But the witch sees all and knows much. Ask the witch._

 _Ask the witch,_ repeated the rest of the flowers, swaying the breeze. Their voices blended together, growing louder and louder until it made her head hurt. _Ask the witch. Ask the witch._

“Hey!” Someone shook her roughly and suddenly Sakura couldn’t hear them anymore. She turned to see Kurogane standing behind her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, now I am,” Sakura said, a bit breathlessly. “Thank you, Kurogane-san. And—and now I know where Syaoran-kun went!”

“Eh?” Kurogane looked confused, so she quickly explained about the flowers. The look on his face suggested that he didn’t quite believe her, but he didn’t say anything when she told him they had to go see the witch.

Sakura wiped the dirt off her dress and hurriedly finished watering the flowers. She had just finished when a servant appeared and led her and Kurogane outside to where Tomoyo was waiting with their horses, Mokona in her arms.

“Did they help you?” Tomoyo asked as they approached.

“I need to go see the witch,” Sakura said. “But Tomoyo-chan…how did you know…?”

“I knew the flowers would like you,” Tomoyo said simply, smiling. “Because you’re a person who plants lots of flowers just so one won’t be lonely. That’s why I like you so much.”

“Tomoyo-chan…” Sakura bowed. “Thank you so much!”

“It was my pleasure!” Tomoyo reached forward to grasp Sakura’s hands. “Please stop here again when you come back, okay?”

“I will!” Sakura mounted her horse and reached down to take Mokona from Tomoyo.

“Please be careful!” Tomoyo waved as Sakura and Kurogane started off. Sakura looked over her shoulder and waved back, watching until Tomoyo had disappeared behind the bushes.

\--

As they traveled further, the woods began to change. The green and lush forest became grayer and the stark tree branches rose up like spindly fingers against the darkening sky. Even the sounds of animals grew more distant. The only thing that could be heard besides the steady clopping of the horses’ hooves and the occasional meow from Mokona was the cawing of a single crow.

Kurogane rode beside Sakura in silence. He was beginning to wonder why he had agreed to go with her. They were traveling west into a land populated by who-knows-what, following what Sakura claimed was the advice of flowers. It was ridiculous. And for all Kurogane knew, her brother already had people out looking for them, who would be all to happy to arrest him on sight for kidnapping their mistress. If he had any brains at all, he’d grab the reins of the girl’s horse and drag her back home whether she wanted to go or not, and then they’d forget anything ever happened.

Kurogane thought of Fai’s stupid smiling face and unreadable eyes and cursed silently. This really was all the idiot’s fault. He had to go forward now, if only so he could see Fai one more time and give the moron a good stabbing.

“Kurogane-san, look there!” Sakura suddenly stood up a bit in her seat, pointing. Kurogane looked away from the crooked trees and followed her gaze. A house rose up in the distance. “Do you think it’s the witch-san’s house?”

Kurogane didn’t answer, eyeing the house suspiciously. It wasn’t so much a house as strange looking shack, black all over with large windows and lots of right angles. The place looked like it would blow apart with the first stiff wind.

“We should move on,” Kurogane said as they approached it.

“But Kurogane-san, the flowers said--”

“I don’t like the look of this place.” Kurogane gave the house a disapproving glare as a crow settled down on the rotting sign that stood nearby. Kurogane leaned over and tried to read the words, but they had long faded away.

“Yes, but – Mokona!” Sakura made a wild grab for the white cat as it jumped off her horse and trotted straight towards the odd black house.

“Mokona, wait!” Sakura reined her horse to a stop and hurriedly climbed down, running after the cat. Kurogane gave a long-suffering sigh and climbed down from his own horse, tying the two animals to one of the trees. The crow cawed at him as he walked past it towards the house.

“Mokona!” Sakura called the cat’s name again, but it continued to ignore her as it climbed into a cracked window and disappeared inside the house.

“Good riddance to that thing,” Kurogane said as he walked up beside her.

“We can’t leave Mokona behind!” Sakura said insistently. “He’s Fai-san’s cat. I can’t just leave him here.”

She strode past Kurogane, walking up the steps leading to the doorway. There was an old doorknocker in the shape of a butterfly hanging form the wooden door.

“This is such a pain,” Kurogane grumbled as Sakura banged the doorknocker. He kept a hand on his sword as he came up beside her.

The door creaked open, and a boy in glasses peered out.

“Oh! Can I help you?” His eyes darted curiously from Sakura to Kurogane and back again.

“Are you the witch-san?” Sakura asked.

“No, not me, but this is her shop.” The boy pulled the door open wider and gestured for them to come inside. “Are you here to see Yuuko-san?”

“Yes. I mean, I think so,” Sakura said, walking inside. Kurogane eyed the boy suspiciously as he followed. “And our cat got lost, too. I think it came in here.”

“ _Our_ cat?” Kurogane muttered. They followed the boy into what appeared to be the main drawing room. The furniture was black and draped with silks, and small butterfly-shaped lights hung from the wall. Kurogane noted with some suspicion that the inside of the house seemed far too large compared to the outside.

 

“I’ll go get Yuuko-san. Please wait here.” The boy gestured for them to sit and then hurried off. Sakura nervously settled herself on the couch, but Kurogane simply leaned against the wall and waited, his hands close to the hilt of his sword.

“I don’t trust this place,” the man said.

“It feels strange,” Sakura said quietly, not quite agreeing. “But I’m sure the flowers wouldn’t lead me into danger, Kurogane-san.”

“I’m not so sure,” Kurogane replied. “Just be careful, Lady. This isn’t any ordinary house.”

“Of course not.” They looked up as a woman entered the room. She had long black hair and wore an expensive-looking black dress embroidered with butterflies. “This is a witch’s house, after all.”

“So you’re the witch-san?” Sakura asked.

“My name is Yuuko,” the woman said, seating herself on the couch across from Sakura. “And this is a place where any wish can be granted, if a suitable price is paid. If you came here, then there must be a thing you need, am I correct?”

“Yes.” Sakura nodded.

“There is a price,” Yuuko warned her.

Suddenly a black and white streak burst into the room, racing around the furniture.

“Mokona!” Sakura exclaimed as the white cat darted into her lap. The black cat it had been chasing climbed up next to Yuuko, purring.

“I’m sorry, Yuuko-san, I was feeding Mokona and--” The boy in glasses appeared breathlessly, waving at the black cat.

“It’s all right, Watanuki,” Yuuko said, petting the black cat. “Mokona knew its other was nearby, that’s all.”

“That cat is named Mokona too?” Sakura said, looking from the white cat to the black.

“Yes,” Yuuko replied. “They’re….a set.”

“Then you know the idiot,” Kurogane spoke up.

“I sold the cat to Fai, yes,” Yuuko said.

“Why?” Kurogane pressed angrily. “Are you working with him?”

“You should know better than that, Kurogane.” Yuuko didn’t seem at all fazed by his anger.

“I didn’t tell you my name.”

“I didn’t need you to.” Yuuko smiled, and it reminded Kurogane uncomfortably of one of Fai’s more predatory expressions. “I am a witch, after all.”

“Yuuko-san…” Sakura spoke up hesitantly. “You know Fai-san?”

“As I said, I sold him the cat.” Yuuko was still looking at Kurogane. “It wasn’t what he asked for. He couldn’t pay the price for me to grant what he truly wanted, so we made another trade instead.”

“What did he really want?” Kurogane asked.

“Oh, I can’t tell you that,” Yuuko said secretively. “You shouldn’t be so nosy, Kurogane. Now, I believe we have our own transaction to deal with.”

“Can you help us find Syaoran-kun and Fai-san?” Sakura asked. Kurogane raised an eyebrow at her inclusion of Fai into the question.

“I can.” Yuuko’s face was serious but not unkind. “There is a price, you understand. I’ll need something precious from you.”

Sakura nodded, but her face was pale, and Kurogane could see her casting little glances out the window where her pack was. He suddenly remembered what she had said to him when they’d first left the town.

“ _I brought him his birthday present, too. When we find him, I’m going to give it to him and this time he’ll call me by name.”_

Kurogane sighed. Really, it was such a pain.

“Here.” He held out his sword to the witch. “This is our payment.”

“Kurogane-san…” Sakura was staring at him, wide-eyed. “Kurogane-san, don’t! I should be the one who--”

“Shut up,” Kurogane said, causing her to flinch a little. “I told you, there’s an idiot I want to talk to. It’s my wish too, so I’ll pay.” He turned back to Yuuko. “Well?”

“The payment is accepted.” Yuuko took the sword and handed it to the boy in glasses. “Watanuki, take this to the storeroom.”

“Well?” Kurogane said impatiently as the boy hurried off.

Yuuko stood and walked over to Sakura, sitting down beside her. She ran a hand along the white cat clasped in the girl’s arms.

There was a sudden burst of light, and then the cat was gone and something else was in its place.

“Nice to meetcha!” A small white _creature_ sat in Sakura’s lap, extending a hand to her.

“M-Mokona?” Sakura asked hesitantly.

“What the hell?” Kurogane swore.

“Mokona will lead you where you need to go,” Yuuko said, getting up to leave.

“How the hell is this stupid white pork bun supposed to help us?” Kurogane growled. “Give me back my sword!”

“A fair price is nothing to mess with,” Yuuko said, and he could hear the mocking laughter in her voice. “Mokona will take you where you need to go. Good luck.”

With that, Yuuko disappeared down the hall into the darkness. Kurogane had the distinct impression that they’d just been dismissed.

“This stupid pork bun better be worth losing my sword for,” Kurogane said darkly.

“Mokona isn’t a pork bun!” the white thing stated. “Mokona is Mokona!”

“Mokona, will you help us find Syaoran-kun?” Sakura asked the little creature.

“Of course.” Mokona smiled at her. “It’s one of Mokona’s 108 secret techniques: Ultimate Tracking Ability!”

“Thank you very much, Moko-chan!’ Sakura gave the creature a hug. Kurogane rolled his eyes and wondered if it wasn’t too late to trade them both in for a new sword.


	2. bridges we cross

With Mokona sitting on Sakura’s horse and leading the way, they continued on past the black woods of the witch towards a darker, wilder terrain. The winds grew progressively colder, and soon Sakura had traded her own cloak for a winter one given to her by Tomoyo, dusty rose in color with soft white fur around the edges and small cherry blossoms embroidered along the edges. Kurogane settled for his own black cloak and said little as they traveled.

Sakura seemed happy enough to trust the white thing, but Kurogane wasn’t particularly convinced that it wasn’t leading them on a wild goose chase. They hadn’t seen a single house since leaving the witch’s place, and there was no one who could be asked to provide evidence that the sleigh carrying Syaoran had ever passed this way at all. Still, the creature seemed to be leading them unerringly _somewhere_.

Kurogane wished he still had his sword. He had a spare he’d brought along, but it was an old, cheap thing and he doubted it would stand up in a fight.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going, pork bun?” he grumbled.

“Mokona is Mokona!” the thing chirped. “And Mokona is only leading you where you want to go!”

“How do you know?” Kurogane pressed. “There’s no tracks.”

“Because Mokona can sense the magic,” the creature replied.

“Don’t worry, Kurogane-san,” Sakura added. “I’m sure Yuuko-san wouldn’t have changed Mokona if she didn’t think it would help us.”

“And I’m not sure I trust _her_ either,” Kurogane said pointedly.

“Mokona is being helpful!” the creature stated, and Kurogane snorted. Sakura looked between the two of them nervously.

“I’m sure Moko-chan is doing its best,” she said hesitantly.

“Right, right,” Mokona agreed happily. Kurogane snorted and looked away.

After some time he caught sight of something off into the distance. As they drew closer Kurogane could see a huge rock face rising up out the ground. It appeared to be some sort of wall that stretched off into the distance with a gap between, like a gate. The impression was further helped by the strange crumbling edifices that jutted out of the rock face at odd angles, as though some great carving had once been there.

“What is it?” Sakura breathed as they approached.

“It’s a gate,” Mokona said, unusually serious.

“Hey, pork bun.” Kurogane’s voice was cold. “Have you been here before? With him?”

“No.” Mokona shook its head. “But Mokona has seen this place in Yuuko-san’s books, when the gate was still intact. It marks the end of this country and the start of the one belonging to the snow king.”

“The snow king?” Sakura repeated.

“That’s just a fairy tale,” Kurogane said dismissively.

“No,” Sakura said with sudden conviction. “Because we saw him. The black-haired man in the sleigh.”

“King Ashura.” A voice rang out from above. Kurogane swore and reached for his sword, wishing it was more than just a cheap replacement.

Fai stood on the gates above them, looking down.

The blond man looked different than Kurogane could ever recall seeing him before. The flour-covered baker’s clothes Kurogane was most used to seeing him in were gone, replaced by an outfit of deep blue, with high black boots and a black fur-lined cloak covered in strange blue sigils. In one hand Fai carried a slim staff with blue crystals adorning the top. The lazy smile was gone, and Fai’s face was regal and cold, his blue eyes hard as stone.

“Fai-san!” Sakura clutched Mokona close. “Fai-san, please, give Syaoran-kun back!”

“You should turn back,” Fai said. “This is a dangerous country.”

“Get down here, you bastard!” Kurogane said angrily.

“Go back,” Fai repeated, fixing Kurogane with a dark glare. For a moment Kurogane had the wild thought that he needed a better sword, because if Fai came down now, Fai would kill him.

Which was ridiculous, because it was _Fai. Fai,_ the smiling idiot who tackled him every morning when he entered the shop, who refused to carry his own sacks of flour, who dragged Kurogane to the marketplace every Thursday to carry his groceries because he claimed the work was far too strenuous for him to do alone. Fai the stupid laughing blond who always had a nickname handy and was always telling Kurogane to stop being grouchy.

“This isn’t a place for any of you,” Fai said. “Turn back.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Kurogane said. “Shut up and get over here!”

“Turn back,” Fai said again and disappeared with a wave of his staff.

“Fai-san…” Sakura said miserably. “Kurogane-san, what should we do?”

Kurogane sheathed his sword.

“We keep moving.”

\--

The sun went down, and with it came even colder winds. Tomoyo had packed them a few blankets, which Kurogane gave to Sakura. The terrain was rockier here, dotted with sparse trees, and the rough path they were following had clearly not been in use for some time. The ground was broken in places and covered with fallen branches and rocks, and the only sign of footprints on the ground were their own. It was clear that if anyone lived in this place it was nowhere nearby, and Kurogane knew that, despite her protests, the girl couldn’t go on all night. He found them a reasonably safe spot atop a hill where he could see anyone coming from a ways away and they settled down for the night. Kurogane allowed a small fire only, and Sakura was soon asleep with Mokona nestled in her arms.

Kurogane stayed awake to keep watch, leaning against a tree some ways away. It was too dark out, no stars and only a grim sliver of moon, and far too quiet, the only sound being the whistling of the wind. He wished again for a decent sword.

The caw of crow caught his attention and he watched as it flew down, alighting on a branch of one of the gnarled trees.

It cawed once, and then Fai sat there on the branch that seemed too thin to hold him.

The blond man had changed clothes yet again, this time wearing a gray shirt and pants with a strange feathered belt around his waist. His cloak was dark gray and tattered, with crow feathers around the edges. His staff was made of black metal like a long poker, and there was an odd-looking sigil on the end. He was staring at the dark expanse of sky, as though not even aware that Kurogane stood below him.

“What do you want?” Kurogane drew his sword.

“You’re so impetuous, Kuro-pi,” Fai said darkly. “I told you to take Sakura-chan away and forget.”

“Did you really think I would?”

“I hoped you would.” Fai jumped down from the tree and his cloak waved behind him as he floated to the ground. “I should’ve known better, I suppose.”

“What are you doing here?” Kurogane did not relax his stance.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Kuro-pon. Or her,” he added, looking sideways at the sleeping Sakura. “I just came to talk.”

“To talk,” Kurogane repeated, not convinced.

“Don’t be so suspicious, Kuro-mi,” Fai said lightly, smiling.

“Shut up,” Kurogane replied. “And don’t give me that stupid fake smile.”

“I’m not going hurt you,” Fai repeated, letting the smile drop away. “I just wanted to tell you to turn back.”

“You already said that earlier,” Kurogane replied.

“And you didn’t listen,” Fai pointed out. “Stubborn, stubborn Kuro-pin. If you’d listened to me in the first place you wouldn’t even be here.”

“Why should I listen to an idiot like you?”

“Because I’m trying to help you.” Fai smiled again, but his eyes were grave. “If you keep going, you’ll die. You should turn around.”

“Are you going to kill me if I don’t?”

“No.” Fai’s smile was thin and wretched. “But that’s no guarantee of anything.”

“You’re not getting out of this by being vague, you bastard,” Kurogane growled. “If you want me to stop coming after you, you’ll have to do better than that.”

“You’re not coming after me,” Fai said quietly. “You’re after Syaoran-kun, right?”

Kurogane grunted in reply and looked away.

“I can’t let you take him, Kuro-tan,” Fai said. “I _need_ him.”

“Why?”

“For something very important,” Fai replied. His eyes strayed to Sakura again. “You met Yuuko-san, right? She gave you Mokona.”

“She said she’d met you,” Kurogane said.

“And she took your sword, right?” Fai said with a sudden grin. Kurogane started in surprise before he recalled the crow sitting on the sign outside the witch’s house. Fai took in his sudden annoyed expression and laughed. “She did!”

“It’s your fault,” Kurogane said irritably, glaring at the replacement sword still in his hands.

“She couldn’t grant what I asked her, you know.” Fai looked up at the sky, his eyes far away again. “Even if I gave her everything I had, she couldn’t grant my wish. Even if I gave up everything…” He shook his head. “So I asked for something else instead. There’s something I was searching for, and Mokona was how I found it. That’s why I moved into the town. I was waiting.” Fai grew silent then. Kurogane sat quietly beside him, waiting until at last the blond man spoke again. “I didn’t think it would be Syaoran-kun.”

“But you knew it would be someone,” Kurogane prompted. “You knew that…whatever the hell it was, the thing that turned the kid’s eye blue. You knew it was coming.”

“Yes. I told you, Mokona led me there. Mokona led me many places.” Fai’s voice was as distant as his eyes, as if he’d almost forgotten Kurogane was there. “I’ve been running very far, for a very long time. I only came back to see King Ashura once, when I thought I was done. But I wasn’t, and the castle…” Fai suddenly gave a start, as if he’d just come back to himself. “Well, I wasn’t done, in any case. I went to see Yuuko-san again, but all she could tell me was that Mokona would take me where I needed to go.”

Fai grew quiet for a moment after that. Kurogane waited, trying to read the other man’s expression. It was no good. He couldn’t quite see the blond’s face completely, couldn’t quite find Fai underneath the false cheer and the far away wistfulness and the layers of everything that coated Fai’s eyes and sealed his mouth.

Fai closed his eyes and sighed, then spoke at last.

“Kuro-pon, do you remember the first day you worked?”

“Hmmph,” Kurogane snorted. “You threw a bag of flour on me and said something stupid.”

“That you were a white thing instead of a black thing,” Fai said, smiling. “And you got all red-faced and mad and threw some dough at me like a little kid.”

“I did not!” Kurogane said indignantly.

“Yes you did!” Fai laughed. “Kuro-pin said ‘You bastard, get back here!’ and threw dough at me and then you chased me around with a loaf of bread, telling me you were going to knock some sense into my stupid idiot head.”

“Which obviously didn’t work,” Kurogane said. “Since you’re still an idiot.”

“I was going to fire you after that,” Fai said, his voice low. “Did you know that? Because I had so much fun, and I knew it was dangerous. So I was going to fire you. I was going to fire you lots of times, because I _knew >_ it was thin ice. I _knew_ you’d get too close, because you’re Kuro-tan and it was so much fun having you there. And then Sakura-chan started coming into the shop all the time with Syaoran-kun, and…” Fai trailed off. “It shouldn’t have been Syaoran-kun.”

“If it bothers you so much, give him back and we’ll leave,” Kurogane said, unyielding.

“I can’t.” Fai turned as if to leave. “I told you, Kuro-rin. There’s something I want, and I need Syaoran-kun to help me get it. Even if you come after him, I can’t let you have him.” Fai glanced back at Kurogane, his eyes hooded and dark. “I don’t want to be the one who has to stop you, Kuro-chi. So turn back.”

“Stop being stupid,” Kurogane replied. “You should know better.”

Fai laughed darkly.

“Yes, I suppose I should.” He sighed. “Stubborn and gloomy, like always.”

Fai wrapped his cloak tighter around him until he seemed to disappear beneath it, and then there was only a black crow, flying off into the distance.

Kurogane watched until it was out of sight, then leaned back against the tree, sword still in hand, and watched Sakura sleep.

\--

Morning dawned crisp and cold, and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. Kurogane could tell it was getting colder as they went deeper into the strange country, and the hills off in the distance were white.

That was where they were going, Mokona had said some time earlier. Past those hills was the main part of King Ashura’s lands, where the flowers bloomed even though the snow always fell. Even from far away, Kurogane had the distinct impression that there was something not right about those hills. Not just the snow and the cold, but something else. Something that made him think of Fai in the tattered gray crow’s cloak, sitting on a tree branch watching a sky without stars.

Thinking about Fai only made him irritated again, and Kurogane shook his head to clear it. He glanced over at Sakura riding nearby. She was talking to Mokona in a low voice and it was responding in a silly cheerful way that only made Kurogane think of Fai again.

Stupid, idiot Fai. Kurogane growled to himself. He didn’t understand that idiot at all. Fai had always seemed ridiculous and carefree at the bakery, nothing at all like the imperious figure that had greeted them at the gates. And nothing at all like the Fai he’d met last night, still filled with stupid grins and pointless blather but a bit sad and wistful too, strange in a way he couldn’t quite pinpoint. All of it masks and layers and moronic cheer, and Kurogane hated every bit of it.

Which was the only reason why he was looking forward to seeing the blond again, because Kurogane was going to beat some sense into the idiot even if it killed them both.

He thought he heard a soft whisper of something from up ahead and Kurogane reined his horse to a stop, cursing. The idiot wasn’t even _here_ and he was already messing things up. Kurogane would have noticed it earlier if he hadn’t been so busy thinking about the stupid blond. He motioned to Sakura to stop.

“Kurogane-san?” Sakura’s voice was worried. “What’s wrong?”

“An ambush,” Kurogane said grimly. “I should’ve noticed the signs earlier. So far this road’s looked like no one’s traveled it in years, but there are signs all over just this part, as if people just came through. Someone’s waiting for us ahead, right where the trees get thicker and the path disappears.”

“What should we do?” Sakura asked in a hushed tone, holding Mokona close.

“Tie the horses and hide,” Kurogane ordered, dismounting and grabbing his sword. “I’ll take care of this.”

Not bothering to wait for her answer, Kurogane disappeared down the path.

“Is this your doing?” he muttered quietly to himself. Kurogane doubted it and hated himself for it, but somehow he didn’t think this was the sort of thing Fai would do. The blond had said that he didn’t want to hurt either of them, and an ambush would put Sakura especially in danger. Whoever was waiting for them, Kurogane was fairly convinced that they were normal bandits, not magicians.

Or perhaps not even bandits. As Kurogane got closer he could hear rustling in the trees. Whoever these people were, they were inexperienced at setting traps. Kurogane could tell their positions with minimal effort. Even if he hadn’t noticed the signs when he did, Kurogane would’ve had to be blind and deaf not to notice them now. He smiled to himself. This would be easy.

From what he could tell, there were only two of them. Likely armed, but that wouldn’t be a problem. A sword in the hands of someone who didn’t know how to use it was as useless as no sword at all. Kurogane smirked and strode forward, waiting to see who would make the first move.

There was a quick movement in the trees and Kurogane whirled, sword out, as a person leapt out at him. The bandit was covered in a long cloak and hood that obscured all but his eyes, which were wide and surprised at Kurogane’s easy anticipation of the attack. The bandit held a long, sharp knife that Kurogane blocked with one simple movement of his sword. Another quick movement and Kurogane swept the weapon right out of his opponent’s hands. The bandit was slow to recover from the shock, and Kurogane took the opportunity to bring the hilt of his sword down hard on the man’s head. The bandit crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Kurogane said disgustedly. There was no reply. The other bandit had apparently fled already. Kurogane snorted. He’d expected this to be easy, but not _this_ easy.

He was about to bend down to examine the bandit’s dropped weapon when he heard a cry from back through the trees. He recognized that voice. Kurogane cursed and ran towards the sound.

Kurogane slid to a halt as he exited the trees, gripping his sword tightly as he surveyed the scene before him. Another bandit, dressed in the same voluminous cloak and face-obscuring hood as the other one, stood in the center of the path, sword drawn. Sakura was on the ground, her back pressed up against a tree and the sword only a short way from her throat. She was holding Mokona against her chest in a white-knuckled grip.

 _Dammit, the other one!_ Kurogane cursed his own oversight.

“Drop your sword,” the bandit said commandingly, and Kurogane realized that she was female.

“Let her go,” Kurogane said.

“If you drop your sword,” the bandit repeated, her voice level. “I don’t want to hurt the girl, but I will if I must. Drop your sword.”

Kurogane growled low in his throat and considered. The distance between them was too great, he wouldn’t be able to cross it and disarm the bandit before she injured Sakura. But if he dropped his sword there was still no guarantee that Sakura would remain unharmed.

“What do you want?” Kurogane asked. “Did that blond idiot send you?”

“We only want your supplies,” the woman stared. “Drop your sword. Don’t make me say it again.”

There was the sound of wings rustling in the trees. Kurogane gripped his sword tighter and waited.

“I said--” The woman was cut off sharply as a black shape burst from the trees. The crow flew at her, beating its wings in her face and clawing at her eyes. The bandit cried out and stumbled back, blinded, and swung her sword wildly.

The crow cawed once and disappeared in a flurry of feathers. Before the bandit could even begin to gather herself again Kurogane was there, slamming his fist into her stomach. The woman fell to the ground, her sword tumbling from nerveless fingers.

“Are you all right?” Kurogane turned to face Sakura, who was climbing slowly to her feet.

“Y-yes, I’m all right.” Sakura’s voice was breathless but she seemed unhurt. “She didn’t hurt me.”

“Get me some rope out of the packs,” Kurogane ordered, kneeling down beside the unconscious bandit. Black feathers littered the path around the body, and Kurogane found his eyes staring off into the distance where the bird had disappeared.

“Kurogane-san?” He didn’t even realize that Sakura had returned with the rope until she spoke. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Kurogane said in a rougher tone than he meant to. He took the rope and began to tie the woman’s hands behind her back. “She didn’t hurt you?”

“No.” Sakura shook her head. “Moko-chan and I were waiting for you when she jumped out of the trees and surprised us. She kept us against the tree but she didn’t hurt us at all. She said she just needed to keep us there until you got here and said she wouldn’t hurt any of us.”

Kurogane nodded thoughtfully, then stood.

“Keep an eye on her and tell me if she wakes up.” He reached down and picked up the bandit’s sword, walking towards the trees.

It was a good sword, well-made enough that Kurogane was certain it had to be stolen. The woman had appeared to have better skill at holding a sword than her companion, but he could tell from her stance that she wasn’t used to a sword of this quality. It would suit his purposes perfectly.

That was when he saw the blood on the edge of the blade.

Kurogane cursed again. That idiot. That _idiot_.

“Kurogane-san!” Sakura’s yell attracted his attention and he strode back to where he’d left the girl and the prisoner. The bandit was opening her eyes.

“What did you want from us?” Kurogane held the sword against the woman’s neck, eyes burning. His eyes were still on the blood at the tip of the blade. “And who sent you?”

“No one, I swear!” The bandit’s eyes were wide. “We weren’t going to hurt either of you! We only needed your supplies.”

“Why?” Kurogane asked.

“Because our land is dying,” the bandit said. “Surely you’ve seen it, travelers. Please, you must believe me. I come from a village not far to the west of here. We have lived off the land for generations, despite the conditions. Even in the snow and the cold, our crops thrived and game was plentiful. Then, many months ago, something happened. Snow fell which killed everything it touched. Animals disappeared from our forests, and harsh winds destroyed our homes. We have nothing now. We tried to send messengers to the king, to beg for his aid, but none of them, ever returned.”

“So you rob travelers instead,” Kurogane said. His voice was level.

“It is the only way we can survive,” the woman said. “We haven’t harmed anyone unless there’s been no choice. Our village depends on us to survive.”

“Kurogane-san,” Sakura spoke up hesitantly. “Kurogane-san, I believe her. She didn’t hurt me, even though she could have.”

“Is there anyone else waiting to ambush us?” Kurogane glanced only briefly at Sakura before returning his attentions to the bandit. “Do you have more people hiding somewhere nearby?”

“Only us two are left now,” the woman said. “If there are others, they did not arrive with us.”

Kurogane was silent for a moment, considering.

“Kurogane-san?” Sakura asked hesitantly.

“Where did you get this sword?” Kurogane said finally.

“We stole it,” the bandit said. “It was amongst the supplies we stole from a rich merchant who traveled this way a month ago. We did him a favor,” she added fiercely. “With no supplies, he had to turn back. If he’d gone forward, the winter would have caught and killed him, as I’m certain it killed our village’s messengers. And as it will kill you, if you go on.”

“We’re going to see the king,” Sakura said suddenly. “We’ll talk to him for you, so please tell your friend not to ambush us again. I’m sure we can help you all.”

“I’m keeping this sword,” Kurogane said, turning away. “If any of you attack us again, I’ll kill you. Go back home.”

“You’ll die if you go on.” Kurogane could hear the bandit speaking breathlessly to Sakura even as he walked over to untie the horses.

“Don’t worry.” Sakura’s answer was firm. “We won’t die, I’m certain of it. It’s very important that we see the king. So please don’t worry about us.”

“You’re too trusting sometimes, Lady,” Kurogane said darkly as Sakura reappeared beside him, the rope in her hands and Mokona on her shoulder.

“I think she meant what she said,” Sakura said. “I don’t think they’ll attack us again.”

“Mokona trusts her too,” the white thing added. “And Mokona is a very good judge of character.”

Kurogane turned away and didn’t reply.

\--

By the time they stopped for the night it had gotten considerably colder and the snow was falling at a steady pace. The path had grown increasingly more obscured as they traveled and had by now all but disappeared beneath the snow and the overgrowth of twisted trees and brambles. They stopped in a small clearing partially protected by the ring of trees whose dark branches all but obscured the sky. Kurogane had been reluctant to allow a fire but had built one anyway, seeing the way Sakura shivered even under the thick blankets.

Sakura had only just fallen asleep. The girl had insisted on keeping the first watch, and Kurogane had agreed only because he knew that even he couldn’t go on for days without any sleep. Mokona had stayed awake with Sakura and had promised to wake Kurogane at even the slightest hint of danger.

Despite their assurances, Kurogane had only dozed, his back against one of the trees. Sakura had finally succumbed to sleep and lay curled in the blankets on the far side of the fire, Mokona wrapped in her arms. Kurogane leaned back and stared into the fire, his sword lying within arm’s reach beside him. He was listening for something.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he heard the wings. Kurogane didn’t even turn as the quiet flapping turned into light footfalls and Fai walked out of the shadows.

Kurogane stood and turned to face him, but did not pick up his sword. The blond man stood leaning one arm against the tree, a lopsided smile on his face. A long, bloody scratch ran down the left side of his face, over one closed eye.

“You _idiot_.” Kurogane was surprised at the venom in his own voice.

“That’s mean, Kuro-pon,” Fai replied. He was still smiling, but his voice shook.

Kurogane didn’t reply, instead reaching forward and dragging Fai into a sitting position.

“Wait here.” The dark-haired man walked over to where they’d left the packs, digging around for a moment before returning with a roll of bandages. He squatted down next to Fai and began to bandage the injured eye. “Hold still.”

“You don’t have to,” Fai said lightly.

“Shut up,” Kurogane snapped in reply. He nodded towards where Sakura slept. “You saved her.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” Fai said quietly. They sat there in silence for a long moment as Kurogane continued to bandage the eye. When he finished, the dark-haired man rose and moved to sit on Fai’s other side, where he could see the one visible eye.

“Why?” Kurogane asked.

“I told you, Kuro-pin,” Fai said. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Either of you.”

“So you’ll get yourself hurt instead,” Kurogane snorted.

“That was a mistake,” Fai admitted. “But Kuro-rin was quick to jump in, so I was able to get away.”

“Were you following us?”

“I’ve been with you since you were at Yuuko-san’s,” Fai said. “I thought you of all people would’ve noticed, Kuro-pin.”

“How long are you going to do that?” Kurogane asked darkly. “We’re not turning back. Are you going to stop us, or are you just going to follow?”

“I’ll do what I have to,” Fai said. There was a forced cheer in his voice, but Kurogane could hear a defensive note behind it. The blond turned his single eye towards where Sakura slept, and when he spoke his voice was soft and thoughtful. “If I hadn’t been there, she might have been hurt. She might get hurt more if you reach the castle. Can you live with that, Kuro-pi? If something happens to her, and it’s your fault?”

“She was the one who decided to do this,” Kurogane replied. “I’m only here to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. If something happens, something happens. The threat of that isn’t going to make me turn back, or I’d never have agreed to come in the first place.”

Fai laughed quietly, shaking his head.

“That is something you’d say, isn’t it?” the blond murmured. He turned to look at Kurogane, and the fire cast strange shadows on his face. “Tell me, Kuro-rin…do you believe in fate? Or bad luck?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?” Kurogane muttered. “I make my own luck, and I decide my own fate.”

“I thought you’d say that.” Fai stood. “But it’s an easy thing for someone like Kuro-tan to say. I can’t do that, and that’s why I want you to turn back.” He turned to leave.

“You’re not getting away that easily.” Kurogane grabbed roughly onto his wrist, rising as he did so. “Why do you keep coming here, if you’re trying to make us turn back? Why don’t you just give the kid back I you’re so worried?”

“Because I have no choice!” Fai snapped. He was clearly angry, and Kurogane found himself surprised at the emotion. He had never seen Fai angry before. “As for why I keep coming here, I’ve told you. I don’t want you to die. That should be enough of an answer.”

“It’s not,” Kurogane said flatly. “You keep talking about how we’re going to die if we keep going, and so far all we’ve met are worthless bandits and cold weather. What are you so afraid of here?”

“Myself.” Fai’s smile was a death’s head grin in the firelight. “I told you, Kuro-puu. Bad luck. The power of misfortune. You’re better off not being near me.”

Kurogane started to reply but was cut off by the sound of Sakura stirring. He glanced across the fire towards where the girl slept. Sakura muttered something sleepily under her breath and rolled over, snuggling Mokona to her chest. Kurogane watched her for a moment more, then made a decision.

“Come on.” He dragged Fai forward into the trees.

“Kuro-pon?” Fai’s voice was questioning, and Kurogane refused to turn back and look at him as he dragged the blond forward.

“We’re going to get far enough away that she won’t wake up, and then you are going to talk to me, dammit,” Kurogane snapped. “And you’re going to tell me what the hell is going on, even if I have to stick a sword through your ribs first.”

Kurogane walked until he was satisfied that they were far enough away from the camp that Sakura wouldn’t wake, but close enough that he could still see the light of the fire through the trees. He finally released Fai’s hand and sat down on a large rock, waiting.

“Well?”

Fai stood in front of him, his one visible eye narrowed in thought. His face was grim and hard to read in the dim moonlight, and he didn’t seem at all affected by the cold wind and snow-covered ground, despite his thin boots and tattered cloak.

“You’re too stubborn, Kuro-mu,” he said at last, and sat down on the ground beside Kurogane’s rock. The snow did not wet his clothing and he didn’t shiver at all. “You can’t let me get away with the easy things.”

Kurogane didn’t answer, waiting. Fai sighed.

“Do you know what they called me in my village, Kuro-tan?” Fai asked. “A child of misfortune. That village is far to the north, you know, even farther than this country. It was very cold, and there were none of the spells there that cover this land, spells which let people thrive even in perpetual winter. My people lived by hunting game and cultivating the few crops that can grow in harsh weather. In that land, people usually have dark hair and dark skin, and what little magic runs in their veins is very thin. This” -- Fai ran a hand through his blond hair – “is a sign of bad luck. Blue eyes and blond hair and pale skin. I was cursed from the moment I was born.”

“That’s stupid,” Kurogane said bluntly. Fai laughed mirthlessly.

“Of course you’d say that. But not everyone is like Kuro-rin. And besides…” Fai trailed off for a moment. “There are things you learn, when you have magic. And one of those things is the power of words. When Kuro-tan says things are stupid and believes it, then things are stupid. When people tell you that you bring misfortune and mean it, and keep meaning it, then maybe it comes true even if it’s not. And in time, everything you do seems like misfortune, every movement betrays you.” He shrugged then and smiled. “Don’t listen to me, Kuro-pyon. I think you’ve made me stupid that way, by meaning it, that’s all.”

“You were already stupid before I met you,” Kurogane stated.

“Of course,” Fai said brightly. His voice grew quiet. “They locked me up, after a while. There was a high tower in the mountains by the village, left over from a long-ago war. No one knew what to do with me, so they left me there. And I could see outside, the snow and the sky and everything, but I couldn’t leave that cage.”

“Why didn’t you use your great magic powers to get out?” There was only the barest hint of mockery in Kurogane’s voice.

“I didn’t know how to use them. Things just happened, when I got angry or upset.”

“You weren’t angry at being locked in a tower?”

“Not really.” Fai shook his head. “I suppose you’ll say that’s another stupid thing. A guy like Kuro-kichi would be mad and fight to get out if he was locked up. But I wasn’t. I didn’t feel angry or bitter or sad or anything. It just seemed like that was the way things should be.”

“Then it _is_ another stupid thing,” Kurogane said.

“I know. I’m very stupid, Kuro-puu, I thought you knew that.” Fai stared up at the tree branches above and the sky beyond. “I don’t know how long I was there. I could see the snow and the sky outside and hear life outside, but I never knew how many days passed. It was just that I was in that place for a long long time, and then the door opened one day, and the town elders were there and they were older than I remembered them. They took me by the hand and led me out and talked nicely to me, and then they led me to the edge of town and told me to go away and not come back. And that was it.”

“And you weren’t angry at all?” Kurogane raised an eyebrow. “At those old idiots.”

“They did what they thought was best,” Fai said. “They were afraid, Kuro-rin. Even as they led me out, I could _feel_ it, that they were terrified of me. I didn’t want to do anything to them. I didn’t want to do anything at all. So when they told me to go, I went, because there was nothing else I wanted to do.”

Fai went very quiet then. When the magician spoke again, Kurogane thought he could see some strange change coming over the blond’s features. The blue eye grew dull and sunken, and the blond hair ragged and tangled. Fai’s already pale skin seemed to grow paler and paler still, until it was a frozen blue, and Fai’s voice seemed low and gasping in the wind.

“I wandered for a very long time,” Fai murmured, as if in a dream. “Until I couldn’t feel anything at all but cold and wind and snow. The landscape looked the same wherever I went, and there was no food. There was nothing to do there but die, I remember that. I remember I wasn’t cold anymore but I couldn’t move, and everything was numb and my chest hurt and I only wanted to sleep. And then King Ashura found me and breathed life back into me, and I was warm again for the first time in a very long while.”

Fai shook his head and then he was himself again, and Kurogane found himself wondering if what he’d seen before was only a trick of the moonlight, or if he’d just seen what Fai really looked like, when the smiles and masks and everything were stripped away. Wondered if that was what Fai really was in the end, frozen and dying in every moment even as he breathed.

“So what does this have to do with kid?” Kurogane asked, so that he wouldn’t have to think about Fai that way.

“The power of misfortune,” Fai said with a bitter laugh. “I lived with King Ashura for a very long time, and he taught me how to use my magic. But a curse is a curse, even if no one speaks it, and it stays as long as you believe in it. I tried to make something for the king, to show my gratitude. I wanted to make him something beautiful. And I failed. The magic mirror I created grew dark and shattered and time went away with it. The magic coated this land and where it touched, frost came. The same goes for the people who touched the shards. The largest shard is lodged in King Ashura’s heart. And the final one is in Syaoran-kun’s eye.”

“Final one?” Kurogane repeated.

“That’s what Mokona was for,” Fai said. “Yuuko-san wouldn’t save King Ashura, but she gave me the means to do it myself. Using Mokona, I gathered up the people who had shards lodged inside them and gathered them together. They call to each other. If I could get them all together, I thought the mirror would re-form itself.” Fai laughed again, the sound hollow and painful. “But like Kuro-run says, I’m an idiot. While I was away from the castle, the magic I released tightened its grip on the kingdom and the castle. I returned to find all the people I’d gathered were nothing more than bones.”

“So you took the kid away to die?” Kurogane wished he’d brought his sword with him.

“No,” Fai said severely. “When the people died, the glass shards remained. Syaoran-kun is the last one left. If he can fix the mirror with his own hands, he’ll be saved, and so will King Ashura. I’m protecting him myself this time; he won’t die as long as I’m here.” Fai shifted in his seat. “I’m protecting him, so he won’t die.”

“How do you know that?” Kurogane knew it was cruel, but he said it anyway. “What are you going to do if he can’t fix anything? Are you going to leave him here forever?”

“He’ll fix it,” Fai said fiercely. “He’s close, Kuro-rin. He’s very close. This should work, this should fix things.” Fai gave him a crooked smile. “It’s all my fault, you know. That it was Syaoran-kun. Because I thought I was _done_ , I was _finished_ , I had them all…and I was wrong, so I followed Mokona and ended up in that village. And then you came and I met Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun and I thought that it was a nice place and I would like to stay there, maybe. So of course it was Syaoran-kun. That’s the way things have always been for me.”

“Stop talking nonsense again,” Kurogane snorted. “Things happen. There’s no such thing as bad luck, or being cursed. You make your own luck.”

“ _You_ do,” Fai said wryly. “Because you’re Kuro-tan. I’m not that person. I can’t be.”

“Because you’re too busy running from everything,” Kurogane snorted. “I hate idiots like you. Hiding behind all that crap about ‘misfortune.’ You make your own destiny and you know it, you’re just too much of a coward to accept it.”

“Maybe I am.” Fai laughed and it hurt Kurogane’s ears to hear it. “I’m an idiot and a coward who always runs away. That’s all I am.” He stood as if to go, then stopped and looked back at Kurogane. His face had changed suddenly in the light. Kurogane had a momentary glimpse of the Fai he’d seen before, gasping and dying in the cold, but in the shadows he could see the Fai who had stood atop the gates when they’d first entered this country, the proud imperious Fai who could kill him if he desired. It didn’t look like Fai’s face at all in that light, with the shadows on his skin and only one eye.

“This is the last time I can help you, Kurogane,” Fai murmured, and Kurogane raised an eyebrow at the use of his full name. “If you keep coming after me, you’ll die. Bad things happen to people who come near me. That’s why you have to turn back.”

“You’re a bigger fool than I thought if you think that’s going to convince me,” Kurogane said flatly. A hint of a smile crossed Fai’s face.

“This is all I can do for you, then.” Fai reached into his cloak and handed Kurogane two black feathers. “Soon you’ll reach the silver lamp that marks the path to King Ashura’s castle. When you get there, leave your horses. Give one of those feathers to Sakura-chan and take the other yourself. Mokona will be fine on its own. This is the only thing I can do to help you. If you try to take Syaoran-kun away, I will stop you, Kurogane.” Fai lowered his head and his hair obscured his one visible eye. “I can’t let you take him back, not when I’m so close. I can’t let you interfere.”

“Then why are you giving me these?” Kurogane snorted. “How do I know this isn’t some stupid trick?”

“You don’t,” Fai said bluntly. “But you know it’s not. You’re not stupid, Kurogane. As for why I’m giving them to you….” Fai’s voice trailed off and he turned away. “If you don’t take them and don’t turn back, then there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want…but never mind that. This is all I can do for you if you won’t listen to me.”

Without another word, Fai began to walk away, pulling his cloak tighter around him until all Kurogane could see was a black crow melting into the shadows.

Kurogane tucked the two feathers inside his cloak and headed back towards the fire.

\--

The castle stood quiet and cold against the bleak sky and there was no wind. Nothing moved except the small black crow that flew steadily towards the structure, circling the once-magnificent towers, a speck of black among the winter white that covered even the sky. The bird settled onto a windowsill on the lowest tower and shook the snow off of its feathers, and then Fai sat there, a thin layer of snow frosting in his hair and one eye still bandaged.

He sat balanced precariously on the windowsill for some time, staring out the way he had just come. The only movement he could see came from the steadily falling snow. Besides that, there was nothing, not even the faintest gust of wind shaking tree branches. He could see, far below, figures standing stiff as statues, all covered in a layer of snow. The castle itself seemed to be crumbling beneath the weight of the cold. It was as if nothing had lived in this place for a very long time, as if it had always been standing here in this spot, alone, timeless, unchanging.

Fai shivered, but not from the cold. He wrapped his tattered cloak tighter around his shoulders all the same, turning himself to face back inside the castle. He jumped easily off the windowsill and let his magic carry him safely to the floor.

He remembered a time when this place was warm, when people would greet him as he walked the halls. No one greeted him now except the frozen statues and the empty echoes. Fai kept his eye cast low and walked quickly so that he wouldn’t have to see any of them.

He entered the throne room and gave a small sigh of relief, a slight smile appearing on his face.

“You’re doing well,” Fai murmured as he walked over to where Syaoran still sat, methodically sorting through shards of glass. What looked to be half a mirror was laid out before him. Fai placed a hand on Syaoran’s shoulder, but the boy didn’t look up.

Syaoran’s skin was ice cold under his fingers, and the smile dropped off Fai’s face. He leaned in closer to Syaoran’s face, studying the boy intently.

Syaoran was paler than he should be. His breathing was heavier and his movements were sluggish. Fai felt a shiver run up his spine.

 _I’m protecting him, so he won’t die_. Fai’s own words came back to him. He covered his face with a hand for moment, breathing deep.

He could feel unseen things around him, circling him like always, and he grabbed one, grabbed it tightly and _pulled_.

Fai took his hand away and looked back down at Syaoran. The boy’s breathing was steadier now, the skin a healthier color.

 _It won’t last,_ a mutinous voice in the back of Fai’s head murmured. _The spell’s already beginning to slip. You won’t be able to fix it next time. Next time there will only be bones and one last shard and another broken thing you will never be able to fix._

He turned away and ascended the stairs to the throne. King Ashura sat where Fai had left him, unmoving; a statue with eyes that followed Fai’s every movement. Fai stood before him for some time, unable to speak.

“I’m sorry,” Fai murmured at last, falling to his knees and resting his head on the king’s lap. “I couldn’t stop him. Them. I’m sorry.” Fai took a shuddering breath.

Fai closed his eye and let himself fall asleep with King Ashura’s hands running through his hair.


	3. can you wake me?

“We’ll leave the horses here.” Kurogane reined his horse to a stop. Up ahead he could see a tall, thin structure sticking out of the ground. It was a lamp post made of silver, a straight thin piece of metal with symbols carved all around it. Blue jewels adorned the top around the lamp, but the light was out and it looked as though it had not been lit for some time. The lamppost itself had the appearance of being once a proud and magnificent artifact that had been long neglected and the once-shining silver had grown scratched and dull.

“Kurogane-san?” Sakura looked at him curiously. “Do you know where we are?”

“This is the silver lamp!” Mokona spoke up from its warm hiding spot inside the hood of her cloak. “This marks the path to King Ashura’s castle.”

“But there isn’t a path,” Sakura protested. “The one we were following disappeared days ago.”

“There used to be one,” Mokona told her. “It’s covered by snow.”

“But if it’s a path to the castle, shouldn’t the road be cleared by tracks?” Sakura pressed. “Even in the winter the path to the manor house was always clear because of all the people and caravans that came to see my brother. And that woman bandit said that they sent messengers to the king. I’m sure they weren’t the only town who did that if things are so bad, shouldn’t that have cleared the road?”

“This isn’t a natural snow, Lady,” Kurogane spoke up. “This entire place gives me a bad feeling.” _Like that stupid blond idiot_ , he thought grimly, very aware of the black feather he had tucked safely into his belt. The other he had secretly placed inside Sakura’s cloak when she’d taken it off to use as a blanket the night before. It was easier than explaining everything to her. Easier than thinking of Fai, dying forever in the moonlight.

“Are you sure we should leave the horses?” Sakura asked, even as she prepared to dismount.

“I don’t like doing it, but I think we should,” Kurogane said. He glanced at Mokona. “White thing. How far are we from the castle?”

“Not far, even on foot,” the white creature replied. “And Mokona is _Mokona_.”

“Whatever,” Kurogane said, removing his pack from the horse’s back. He looked over at Sakura, who was struggling slightly with hers. “Are you going to be able to carry that?”

“I’ll be fine,” Sakura said with a shaky smile. “It’s not very heavy, really. And….and anyway, Syaoran-kun’s present is in here.” She bit her lip nervously, and Kurogane decided to let the subject drop.

“Let’s go.”

“Will the horses be okay?” Sakura wondered as she hurried to keep up with Kurogane’s long strides.

“We shouldn’t be gone long,” Kurogane said. “They can take care of themselves until then.”

Sakura nodded slowly. She shivered a little as a cold wind blew past and pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. Mokona snuggled close against her.

As they walked past the silver lamp, Kurogane felt something move in the air. A strange prickling feeling ran down his spine and he shook his head as if to clear it. He looked over at Sakura and saw her shudder visibly as she stepped forward. Sakura paused for a moment and looked back at the lamp, then turned to Kurogane.

“Did you feel that?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“Ignore it,” Kurogane said. “And stop looking back. If you’re determined to do this, you have to look forward.”

Sakura lowered her eyes for just a moment before nodding resolutely.

“Right. Let’s go, then.”

They walked in silence for a while, and Kurogane found himself glancing cautiously at the trees as they passed. It was far too quiet. There was definitely something wrong.

He thought of Fai standing rigid and cold in the moonlight and of two black feathers clutched in white hands.

“Kurogane-san!” Sakura’s hushed cry attracted his attention. The girl pointed to one of the snow-covered trees nearby.

Two birds sat in the tree branches, frozen and unmoving, one with its wings partially stretched out as if about to fly. Neither one moved, and their eyes stared ahead unblinking, but they didn’t appear to be dead.

“What’s wrong with them?” Sakura wondered softly.

“Magic,” Mokona breathed, and Kurogane glanced sharply towards it.

“Did it just affect the animals?” Sakura asked it. “Is that why it’s so quiet?”

“Mokona doesn’t know.” The creature sounded uncertain and sad.

“We’ll see eventually,” Kurogane said. “Keep walking.”

It wasn’t long before they saw a figure up ahead, standing like a statue in the middle of the road. Kurogane heard Sakura’s breath hitch as they approached.

It was a man, dressed in the same voluminous cloak and face-covering hood as the bandits they had met on the road earlier. The man’s pose suggested someone walking against a strong wind, and there was a rolled piece of parchment clutched tight at his side. Like the birds, he neither blinked nor breathed, but did not give us the impression of someone dead. Despite the snow that partially covered his body, what little visible skin he had was rough and tan, and there was no trace of blue around it. He didn’t look frozen to death at all, despite his motionless stance.

“Is he…he’s _not_ dead, is he?” Sakura said, a slight tremor in her voice. “Kurogane-san?”

“No,” Kurogane said, nodding his head in agreement. “He’s not.” His voice was certain, but even he wasn’t sure how he knew. “I think we know what happened to those messengers that woman mentioned.”

“I don’t understand,” Sakura said. “What _happened_ to him?”

“Was it magic?” Kurogane looked over at Mokona. “That’s what you said before.”

“Time magic,” Mokona said. Its voice was uncharacteristically serious. “His time is stopped.”

“Like the birds,” Kurogane said. “Is that what we felt when we passed that lamp?”

“Mokona feels a very strong magic here,” the white creature confirmed. “Mokona felt it when we passed that place.”

“If the spell started there, how did he get so far?” Sakura asked. “And why are we okay?”

“Mokona isn’t sure,” the white creature told her. “But Yuuko-san once said that some spells can be gradual and you can fight against them before they take you.”

“So he fought the spell this far and then it got him?” Kurogane looked dubious.

“He _does_ look like he was fighting against something, doesn’t he?” Sakura spoke up. “Like he was walking against something strong. But he didn’t reach the castle.” She looked worried. “Is it going to get us too?”

“If it was, we’d feel it already,” Kurogane said dismissively.

“Maybe something’s protecting us?” Sakura mused. “Moko-chan, is that something you can do?”

“No, Mokona doesn’t have that power,” the creature replied, shaking its head.

“Who cares what it is?” Kurogane said. “We should keep moving. Is this the right way, white pork bun?”

“This is,” Mokona agreed. “The path is covered, but this is the right way.”

“Then that’s all I care about.” Kurogane placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Stop staring at him and let’s go.”

“But…” Sakura hung back for moment. “Should we really leave him like this?”

“We can’t do anything for him now,” Kurogane said. “I’m not dragging him along with us.”

“But if we took him back to where the lamp is, maybe he’d be all right.” Sakura still seemed reluctant to leave the frozen figure.

“And then maybe this spell or whatever the hell it is would get us when we came back him and you’ll never be able to save the kid,” Kurogane said. “Whatever’s wrong with this place, the castle will be where we’ll find out what it is. So come on.”

“R-right.” Sakura nodded. With one last worried look at the frozen man, she hurried after Kurogane.

As they got further down the unseen road, they began to pass more and more figures suffering from the same frozen malady. Animals could be seen along the sides of the road, more birds frozen in mid-flight, rabbits stilled as they ran from wolves that could no longer catch them, even a small deer paused as it reached over to pull some bark off a tree. Worse than the animals were the people. Some were clearly messengers, while others looked to be warriors or even refugees. All had the same posture of someone fighting against a strong wind.

By the time they were able to see the castle in the distance, a huge dark structure surrounded by high gray clouds and thick walls of ice, the frozen people had changed. Now they all stood like giant porcelain figurines, frozen in the most normal of acts – greeting a friend, bending down to pick a long-since dead flower, carrying baskets of fruit home for a meal. Their expressions were untroubled, as if they had been hit by the spell before they even had time to realize it.

“And the animals and the birds that lived in the kingdom of snow were frozen, and this land became a timeless land,” Sakura murmured as they passed a pair of children walking hand and hand down the road.

“What was that?” Kurogane asked sharply.

“I think I know this story,” Sakura said. “I think I’ve heard this somewhere before. I can’t remember it now, but I’m sure I know this.”

“That’s not much help, Lady,” Kurogane said.

“I know,” Sakura replied. “But still. Moko-chan, does it sound familiar to you?”

“You should know, shouldn’t you?” Kurogane said suddenly. “White thing. You know what’s going on here. You traveled with that idiot.”

“Mokona doesn’t remember,” the white creature said. “Mokona remembers traveling with Fai, and being Fai’s cat. But Mokona doesn’t remember anything else.”

“Useless,” Kurogane snorted.

“Mokona is being very helpful! Mokona led the way!”

“You’ve been very helpful, Moko-chan,” Sakura said encouragingly. Kurogane grunted and turned away from them both.

Kurogane slowed their pace as they got closer to the castle, keeping an eye out for any sign of impending ambush or guards. However, there appeared to be no one anywhere nearby. It was as if there was nobody even aware of their presence, despite their close proximity to the castle. Kurogane listened for the telltale sound of fluttering wings or a crow’s cry, but heard nothing. The land was as dead as it had been since they first passed the silver lamp.

“This doesn’t seem right.” Sakura’s voice was hushed and she pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, shivering in the cold. “There’s no one here, either.” She bit her lip. “Do—do you think this happened to Syaoran-kun, too? The thing that froze all those people?”

“We won’t know until we find him,” Kurogane said, evading the real answer. It only made him think of Fai in the moonlight again, and he gritted his teeth against the thought.

Soon they found themselves standing at the foot of what had once surely been a magnificent staircase that led upwards to the castle door. The structure, like most everything else they had passed, seemed to be suffering from a long period of disuse, crumbling in place and covered in snow.

“It’s sad…” Sakura said quietly. “There’s something sad about this place.” She shivered slightly.

“Mokona can feel it, too,” the white creature said.

“It’s like no one has been here in the longest time,” Sakura said. She held Mokona close. “It feels so lonely here.”

Kurogane didn’t reply to either of them. Pulling out his sword, he carefully began to ascend the steps. Sakura hung back for a moment, eyes closed as if listening hard for something, before giving a deep sigh and hurrying after him.

By the time they reached the castle doors Sakura was visibly out of breath and her hands were white around the straps of her pack. Kurogane, however, showed no signs of weariness as he stared at the closed gates. Something caught his eye and he leaned over to see a pair of men standing frozen on either side of the doors, both almost hidden by the snow.

“Guards,” Kurogane noted. He walked over to one and brushed some of the snow away. The man’s expression was surprised, and he appeared to have been in the midst of turning around to run inside when he’d been frozen. One hand rested unmoving on the hilt of a sword that had been only half-drawn, and the steel blade was scratched and rusted.

“Do you think everyone here is frozen?” Sakura wondered quietly. “Is that why everything looks so abandoned here?”

“Not everyone,” Kurogane said grimly. “That guy who took the kid wasn’t frozen. And that blond idiot.”

“Fai-san…” Sakura murmured. “I hope he’s all right. Do you think he’s here too, with Syaoran-kun?”

Kurogane didn’t reply, but the tight grip he had on his sword made the answer clear. Without another word he strode forward to the castle gates. They creaked loudly as he opened them, and Sakura winced at the sound.

“Are you coming?” Kurogane stood in the doorway and looked back at Sakura, who was still looking at the frozen guards. She nodded and hurried after him.

They walked in silence through a long, winding hall, their footsteps echoing along the high walls. The only light was from the windows above, a dim gray light filtered through clouds. The hallway and walls were silvery-blue ice and covered in a thin but noticeable layer of dust. Occasionally they would pass a door or winding stairway, but still Kurogane kept walking forward. Everything around them was silent and dead, and even their breathing seemed too loud in the stillness. Here and there they could see the silhouettes of frozen people, half-hidden by the shadows, and Kurogane walked quickly by without looking at them.

At last the hallway split into five winding paths, and Kurogane stopped walking.

“Which way should we go?” Sakura wondered aloud. Kurogane didn’t answer for a moment, thinking.

“White thing,” he said at last. “That stupid blond…he used you to sense those whatever-they-were, shards. Can you still tell where they are?”

“Mokona can.” The white creature was quiet for a moment, as if concentrating. After a moment, its eyes opened and it pointed down the far hall. “Mokona senses something that way.”

“Then that’s where the kid is.” Kurogane readjusted his grip on his sword. “Can you tell anything else? Is there anything else here?”

“There’s a very strong power, too,” Mokona replied after another thoughtful pause. “Two powers. Down that way.” It pointed to the middle fork.

“The idiot and the king,” Kurogane said. He smirked. “Perfect.”

“Kurogane-san?” Sakura said curiously as he walked towards the middle fork.

“Take the white thing and find the kid,” Kurogane said without looking back. “I’ll deal with the rest. Find him and get out of here.”

“But it might be dangerous. This was my idea, I should--” Sakura started to protest.

“You can’t fight, right?” Kurogane said. “You’re here to save the kid. Do what you came here to do, and I’ll do what I’m here for.”

“But what if--”

“It was my idea to come here,” Kurogane cut her off again. “If I didn’t want to be here, I’d have let you go alone. I want to have a talk with that blond fool and his king. You’ve got something important of your own to do, right? So leave this to me. You find the kid and save him, and then get out of here. I’ll catch up to you when I’m finished.”

“Kurogane-san…” Sakura nodded. “Be careful.”

She turned and hurried down the far path, Mokona clutched in her arms.

Kurogane listened until he couldn’t hear the echoes of her footsteps anymore, and then strode purposefully forward into the darkened hall.

\--

The hall went on for what seemed like ages, twisting and turning at seemingly random intervals, and with every turn Kurogane found himself getting increasingly more irritated. Of course the idiot would live in a place like this, all hidden passages and never-ending twisted halls. Sakura, at least, had Mokona to guide her, so she would be all right. Kurogane, on the other hand, was beginning to believe that he might be here forever, following the same halls into eternity.

A wisp of cold wind blew by him and then Kurogane found himself blinking in the sudden brightness as the darkened hall gave way to a brightly lit circular room. Unlike the rest of the crumbling and worn castle, this room was bright and clean, almost lived in, though when he looked closer Kurogane could see cracks in the floor and along the walls. A wide staircase stood opposite from the door, leading to a balcony above.

At the top of the staircase stood King Ashura and Fai.

“You idiot,” Kurogane grumbled, readying his sword. Fai’s face was hard like stone and his one visible eye was narrowed; the other was still hidden by bandages. He had abandoned the gray crow’s cloak for the more opulent blue clothes he had worn when Kurogane had first seen him atop the gates, and he held the blue staff in his hand. King Ashura, however, appeared just the same as when Kurogane had seen him in the town square, regal and cold, with pale skin untouched by time. The man’s golden eyes stared down at him with no visible sign of emotion or recognition.

Kurogane tensed, waiting for either one to make a move, but Fai and the king simply stared down at him, neither moving nor speaking. Fai’s eyes were turned away.

“Well, you bastard?” Kurogane called finally. “Are you going to do something?”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Fai said harshly in a voice Kurogane hardly recognized. “Go home, Kurogane. This isn’t a place the living should be. Take Sakura-chan and   
leave.”

“Like hell I will,” Kurogane stated. “Find something else to say.”

“Then there’s nothing I can do.” Fai seemed to collapse in on himself, leaning heavily on the blue staff. King Ashura took the blond’s hand and kissed it lightly.

“Don’t hurt him,” Fai whispered, just as he had the night the snow fell.

King Ashura’s movement was so fast that, had Kurogane’s reflexes not been what they were, he would’ve been impaled by the king’s sword. The king had flown down the stairs in an instant, while drawing the sword Kurogane hadn’t even seen beneath the man’s cloak. Kurogane only barely managed to deflect the attack and dodge, turning even as he did to face his attacker. King Ashura didn’t seem in any way affected by the fact that his attack had just missed. He turned to face Kurogane and readied his stance. Kurogane tensed, waiting.

Though he was prepared for the next attack, Kurogane was still only barely able to deflect it, and he was thankful that he’d taken his sword from that bandit; his old sword would’ve been cleaved in two by the king’s powerful sword strokes. Kurogane moved in for his own strike and only just missed. King Ashura was clearly a skilled fighter, and Kurogane couldn’t help but smile a bit to himself. _This_ was what he’d been looking for, a worthy opponent. In no time blood had been drawn on both sides.

The battle continued and Kurogane found himself matched stroke for stroke. He was beginning to tire only a little, but the king seemed unaffected by weariness or even battle rage; the man’s face remained impassive.

That was when Kurogane noticed it, just a small step out of place as the king lunged at him. Kurogane took advantage of the mistake, angling for a hit that he hoped might prove fatal…

…and then, beyond King Ashura, atop the steps he could see Fai staring at him with one wide blue eye, shaking and _terrified_ , somehow, somehow broken in a way Kurogane hadn’t seen before.

Kurogane pulled back just slightly as he struck, drawing blood, but the wound was neither deep nor fatal. King Ashura moved away, seemingly unaffected by the pain. In one swift movement the king moved to attack again, and Kurogane cursed his own stupidity.

 _Letting that bastard affect my judgment,_ again, he thought bitterly. That had been his best chance to end things, and he hadn’t been able to do it. _All because of that idiot._

Kurogane managed to block the king’s attacks, but it was clear that he was in trouble. King Ashura seemed to have endless reserves of strength, and his sword strokes were skilled and precise.

Kurogane dodged another sword stroke, raising his own sword in a defensive position. As he moved backwards to readjust his stance, his foot hit a crack in the floor and he stumbled just slightly, raising his sword to block the king’s oncoming strike but knowing that isn’t wasn’t going to do any good, that he should’ve made the killing stroke when he had the chance and that that stupid weakness was going to get him killed. King Ashura darted forward, sword ready, clearly prepared to take advantage of the moment of weakness.

There was a loud noise from behind, and King Ashura crumpled to the ground just before he was able to deliver what would surely have been a mortal blow. Fai stood directly behind the unconscious king, his hands tightly clasped around the staff he had just used to knock the man unconscious.

“What the hell?” Kurogane lowered his sword but didn’t let go of it. Fai’s one   
visible eye was narrowed and his face was tight.

“You could have killed him,” the blond said. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because your idiocy is rubbing off on me,” Kurogane said. “He could have killed me. Why’d you stop him?”

“You could have killed him,” Fai repeated. “And you didn’t. I just…I just repaid that debt.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Kurogane asked. “Are you going to fight me?”

“If I have to.” Fai lowered his eye. “Don’t make me fight you, Kurogane.”

“I’m not leaving,” Kurogane said flatly. “Not without the kid.” He raised his head to stare straight into Fai’s visible eye. “And not without you either, you idiot.”

Fai’s eye widened in shock for a moment, and then he shook his head.

“I can’t let you do that,” the blond murmured. He raised his head, and his eye was cold and determined. “If you won’t leave, Kurogane, then I’ll have to make you leave. Because that’s the only way to save you.”

“You’ll have to defeat me, then.” Kurogane readied his sword. “If you can.”

“You always have to be stubborn, don’t you Kurogane?” Fai smiled bitterly and raised his staff. “I should never have let you get so close. I’ll fix that now. I’ll fix everything.”

\--

Sakura wandered down the winding halls of the castle, guided by Mokona. The only sounds she could hear were her own footfalls and heavy breathing.

“Are you sure this is the right way, Moko-chan?” she asked quietly.

“Mokona is certain,” the white creature replied. “Mokona feels power in this direction. We’re getting very close to it now.”

“I hope we find Syaoran-kun,” Sakura said. She glanced back over her shoulder. “And I hope Kurogane-san is all right.” Suddenly she shook her head and faced forward. “No. Kurogane-san said I shouldn’t look back. If all I can do is save Syaoran-kun, that’s enough. That’s why I came here, so I can’t look back.”

Up ahead she could see a lit doorway. Sakura slowed her pace just slightly as she came closer to the room, listening for the sounds of anyone who might be waiting for her. She could hear faint noises coming from up ahead.

“We’re here,” Mokona said softly, hopping out of Sakura’s arms and peering into the doorway.

“Then let’s go,” Sakura said firmly. Together they entered the room.

The chamber was wide and well lit, the walls decorated by sharp ice crystals and lamps lit by strange blue fires. Ahead of her was a regal and empty throne.

“There’s no one here,” Sakura said softly. Something about the atmosphere of the room made her want to whisper. “Do you see anything, Moko-chan?”

“Down there!” Mokona’s urgent voice caused her to turn. The creature was pointing down the wide staircase that led downwards to another circular room. A figure sat at the foot of the stairs, surrounded by shining shards of glass. A familiar figure.

“Syaoran-kun!” Sakura ran down the stairs so fast she very nearly tripped, ignoring Mokona frantically calling her name behind her. All she could see was Syaoran kneeling there, mismatched eyes intent on the ground.

Sakura slowed her run as she reached the last few steps. Syaoran paused and turned to stare darkly at her out of the one blue eye.

“Syaoran-kun…” Sakura trailed off, unsure what to say. It didn’t seem like Syaoran there, staring at her so coldly. “Do—do you remember me, Syaoran-kun?”

“Lady Sakura,” Syaoran replied. His voice was devoid of warmth or emotion, and it didn’t sound at all like him. He stared at her for a moment more, then turned back to gazing intently at the pieces of glass laid out before him.

“That’s not what I asked you to call me,” Sakura said, taking a tentative step towards him. “Do you remember?”

Syaoran didn’t reply. Sakura took another step closer, then knelt down beside him.

“Talk to me,” she said quietly. Syaoran continued to stare at the glass as if she wasn’t even there. “Why won’t he say anything?” Sakura turned to Mokona, who had just made its way down the stairs. She looked back at Syaoran. “How can I help him?”

“Mokona doesn’t know,” the white creature said sadly. “Mokona doesn’t know this spell.”

“But there must be some way!” Sakura said. She pulled open her pack and dug out a now-stale pastry, still wrapped as carefully as it had been so many nights ago. She reached over and pressed the item into Syaoran’s hand. The boy looked at her, but there was nothing warm in his eyes.

“This is a present for you,” Sakura said gently. “I—I know it’s not much now, not anymore. But I wanted to give it to you, Syaoran-kun. I wanted you to have something special, because it was your birthday too. I—I wanted to see you smile, because you always make me smile.”

Syaoran’s eyes met hers and Sakura thought she could see something in the blue eye. Something small and shining and painful that cut through the blue of the eye like scar.

Impulsively, Sakura threw her arms around Syaoran.

“Don’t be lonely, all right?” she said.

She pulled away slightly and placed a hand over Syaoran’s blue eye, closing her own eyes as she moved. She thought she could feel something warm underneath her palm, a small blue flame that didn’t burn her.

“It’ll be all right, I promise. So don’t be lonely anymore,” Sakura whispered.

“L-lady Sakura?”

Her eyes flew open and Sakura pulled her hands away. Clenched tightly in one hand was a small shard of glass. Sakura looked up.

Syaoran stared back at her, red-faced and wide-eyed. Both of his eyes were brown.

“Syaoran!” Sakura threw her arms around him again, smiling so hard it made her face hurt. She could feel him blushing.

“Lady Sakura, you shouldn’t--” Syaoran started to protest and Sakura held up a hand to stop him.

“‘Sakura!’” she said insistently. “Just ‘Sakura,’ okay?”

“Sakura.” Syaoran swallowed hard, his face still red. “All right.”

“Syaoran…” Sakura leaned back, unable to stop smiling. “I’m so glad you’re all right! Do you remember what happened?”

“I-I think so.” Syaoran put a hand to his head. “I remember something was in my eye. And then a man came and it was like he was _calling_ to me, somehow, and I had to go with him. After that, I just remember being here. There was something I was trying to do, but I can’t really remember what, or how. I-I know Fai-san was here, too. I remember Fai-san being here.”

“He is here, I think,” Sakura said. “And Kurogane-san, too. But I don’t know where. Moko-chan led me to you.” She gestured towards the white creature.

Light from the torches was shining off the jewel in Mokona’s forehead, and there were strange reflections illuminating the shards on the floor. Syaoran gasped quietly and leaned forward with sudden urgency, running his hands through the glass.

“Syaoran? What’s wrong?” Sakura asked worriedly.

“I think I know what to do!” Syaoran said breathlessly. “I remember this. I-I was trying to put these back together, but it was as if my vision was blocked. It looks different now. L—Sakura, look, can you see it?”

Sakura narrowed her eyes, looking hard at the glass on the floor. In the light reflected off Mokona’s jewel, she thought she _could_ see something – thin colored strands of light that darted across the glass, connecting each piece to another.

“I _can_ see it!” She looked over at Syaoran. “What does it mean?”

“It means I can fix it,” Syaoran said. He took Sakura’s hand. “ _We_ can fix it.”

Together, they began to sort through the broken glass.

\--

Kurogane eyed Fai warily, keeping a firm hold on his sword. The blond was watching him with calm eyes, holding his staff in a battle stance.

“You’re an idiot,” Kurogane said flatly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What I have to,” Fai said darkly. Without another word the man darted forward, swinging his staff at Kurogane with the practiced ease of a warrior. Kurogane dodged and brought up his sword to parry the blow, gritting his teeth.

“You’re not going to use your stupid magic?” Kurogane asked, avoiding another blow. Fai was more skilled than Kurogane had expected, but the other man’s greatest strength was clearly not in close combat. The speed of his attacks was impressive and Kurogane could tell that the other man was a master of avoidance (of course), but he handled the weapon like a person backed into a corner.

Fai didn’t reply, but Kurogane heard the man’s breath hitch just slightly. Fai attacked again and again Kurogane parried the blow. He continued to dodge and defend against Fai, but did not attack.

“You can’t beat me this way,” Kurogane said. “You know that.”

“I can because I have no choice,” Fai replied. He drew back for a moment, trying to catch his breath. When he looked up at Kurogane again, his eye was pleading. “You have to leave this place, Kurogane. I’ll drown in this, if you stay. King Ashura will wake up soon and this time I won’t be able to stop him if he attacks. He’ll kill you.” His hands were white around his staff. “And if I use magic, I’ll kill you. And I don’t want that.”

“Then you won’t beat me,” Kurogane replied bluntly.

Fai attacked again without warning, and still Kurogane managed to block the attack with his sword. The blond had more strength than Kurogane had expected, but he was still outmatched. Fai swung at him again, wildly, and Kurogane dodged, cursing quietly. He could end this if he attacked. If he hurt Fai.

Kurogane raised his sword, not even quite certain if he was ready to attack or defend, and then a voice stopped him.

“Kurogane-san, Fai-san! Stop it!”

Fai stopped in mid-attack, eye wide and staring as Sakura ran into the room and stood between him and Kurogane. For a moment Kurogane thought the blond was actually going to attack her and he tensed, prepared to interfere if need be, but after a moment Fai lowered his staff, defeated.

“Sakura-chan…” Fai closed his eye. “Forgive me.”

“Sakura!” A shout drew their attention as Syaoran appeared in the doorway, followed closely by Mokona. Kurogane heard Fai draw in a sharp breath as the boy ran to Sakura, clearly worried.

“It’s okay,” Sakura told him. “Fai-san wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Syaoran-kun…you’re…” Fai reached a shaking hand towards Syaoran, then turned to look at Sakura. “Sakura-chan, how…?”

“We don’t know,” Sakura admitted. “I just…I just spoke to him, that’s all, and put my hand over his eye. I felt something hot beneath my hand, and then the glass was just…there. I don’t know how it even happened.”

Fai made a low, miserable sound in his throat and fell to his knees beside his unconscious king. He ran a hand through King Ashura’s hair.

“Of course.” Fai laughed bitterly. “Of course it wouldn’t work for me. No matter what I do, I can’t fix anything. Even if I give up everything, it won’t fix this.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Kurogane growled, and Fai stared up at him through an empty eye. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Kurogane--” Fai started to speak, but Kurogane cut him off.

“Shut up!” the dark-haired man snapped. “I hate that kind of stupid talk. It’s just you running away again. I hate idiots like that.”

“So you hate me, then?” Fai smiled bitterly. “That’s very like you, Kurogane. But there are some things even you can’t change.”

“Fai-san.” Sakura knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We fixed it. Syaoran and I fixed the mirror.” She looked over at Mokona. “Moko-chan?”

“Right!” Mokona opened its mouth wide. There was a swirl of wind and then the mirror appeared before them.

It was a full length mirror of unmarred glass, and the smooth surface gave no indication that it had ever been broken. There was a large jagged hole in the center.

Fai reached out a hand towards it, then looked down at King Ashura. He closed his eye again, and his shoulders were slumped in defeat.

“Fai-san, please look.” Sakura touched his shoulder again. “Can’t you see it?”

Fai reluctantly opened his eye and followed her gaze. Kurogane leaned forward as well, curious. Mokona sat between them and the mirror, and light was reflecting off the jewel in its forehead. Suddenly Kurogane thought he could see something in the air.

Small, shining threads were webbed out all around the surface of the mirror. They shone different colors, red and gold and silver, woven together tightly. A thin blue thread stretched out of the hole in the mirror. It was attached to King Ashura’s inert form.

Fai laughed suddenly, and this time there was no bitterness in it.

“You’re right, Kurogane,” Fai said softly. “I am an idiot. A very big idiot.” He ran a finger lightly along the nearly invisible thread, and it seemed to shine a little brighter where he touched it. “This is something Yuuko-san said to me, when she gave me Mokona. ‘There are threads that bind everything and everyone. There is no coincidence in this world. You meet who you were meant to meet, and those are the threads that will bind the tightest. And those are the threads that are hardest to see, if you refuse to look.’”

Fai took hold of the thread and pulled.

There was a quiet sound, like the tinkling of silver bells, and Fai ran his fingers along the thread as it separated into more and more thin strands that could barely be seen, and as Fai touched each one it gave off a quiet chime. The strands seemed to wrap themselves around his hand all of their own accord, tangling themselves in his fingers and twisting around his wrist, small flashes of light that changed color where they touched his skin.

Fai smiled.

The blond raised his hand and something seemed to rise out of the king’s chest. It was a jagged piece of glass as sharp as a sword which gave off a strange dark light. Fai stared at it for a moment, his one visible eye half-closed, and then whistled quietly.

The glass shard floated forward like a feather and embedded itself in the empty space in the mirror.

It seemed as if many things happened at once then. The mirror glowed brighter and brighter until they all had to shield their eyes against it, and then Fai whistled again, high and sharp, and suddenly the mirror seemed to melt into droplets of shining golden rain and where the drops hit the ground ripples of light spread outwards.

Sakura gave a small cry and Kurogane opened his eyes to look at her. She had scooped up Mokona when the mirror began to glow and had just dropped the creature as gold light rippled by below her feet and Mokona too began to glow. What hit the ground was a white cat with blue eyes, which curled around her feet and purred.

The golden light spread along the ground and up the walls then outside, and the dim light that came through the windows was suddenly bright and clear. After a moment, they heard the unmistakable sound of birds chirping, and then, echoing from within the halls of the castle, frantic voices and quick footsteps coming closer.

Beside Fai’s still hunched form, King Ashura stirred. The king’s eyes opened slowly and he blinked, disoriented, before his eyes came to rest on Fai, and there was warmth in his expression that made him look completely different from the statue he had been before. King Ashura furrowed his brow in worry as he reached up to touch the bandage over Fai’s eye.

“Fai…” The king’s voice was hoarse from disuse, but the emotion in it was clear. “Your eye…are you all right?”

Fai pressed his hand over the king’s, closing his good eye.

“I’m fine,” Fai murmured. He smiled again, and there was a lightness to his expression that Kurogane hadn’t seen before. “King Ashura…good morning.”

\--

Kurogane was lost, and there was no way in hell he was going to admit it.

It had been two days since they’d broken the spell over King Ashura’s land, and those past two days had been spent preparing to go home. King Ashura had thanked them all profusely for helping and had promised to see them home in the safest and quickest way possible. Even now his men were busy preparing the same sleigh that had taken Syaoran away to take the three of them home (Sakura had worried about the horses she and Kurogane had left behind, and King Ashura had promised to see them home safely as well, though when asked how he simply smiled in a way that reminded Kurogane far too much of Fai).

Kurogane had last seen Sakura and Syaoran in the castle courtyard, watching as King Ashura’s men harnessed the winter wolves to the sleigh. King Ashura himself was closeted with another one of his men, gathering information to be sure that the spell had been broken on all parts of the kingdom and preparing to send aid to those areas which were still suffering.

Fai, on the other hand, had been conspicuously absent for the past two days. Kurogane had spotted the blond briefly at a banquet the king had held in their honor, but beyond that he had seen very little of Fai. So Kurogane had decided to search the castle.

Kurogane had been walking for at least ten minutes and he had come to the conclusion that not only did he have no idea where Fai was, he had no idea where _he_ was. King Ashura’s castle was far bigger than could possibly be practical, and every winding hallway seemed to lead to more and more winding hallways. Kurogane wondered darkly if the king even knew exactly where all the halls in this stupid place led to.

Kurogane rounded another corner and very nearly ran into Fai.

The blond had finally taken the bandage off his eye and a small scar remained over half his face. He was wearing the gray crow’s cloak again, and his face looked tired.

“Where the hell have you been?” Kurogane demanded.

“Hello to you, too,” Fai said wryly. He lowered his head and tried to make his way past Kurogane without looking at him. “I’ve been busy, Kurogane. King Ashura needs everyone with magic to help make certain all traces of the spell are gone and--”

Kurogane grabbed the blond’s arm as he passed and pulled him back so that they stood face to face.

“Don’t give me that!” the dark-haired man growled. “You’ve been avoiding me. And the kids. Why?”

“Because I didn’t want to talk to you,” Fai said after a moment. He gave Kurogane a hollow smile. “I’m running away, like usual. You should’ve expected that, Kurogane.”

“Then you’re still an idiot,” Kurogane said flatly.

“The spell is broken,” Fai said. “But I’m still what I was. People still died because of me. A curse is still a curse, as long as you believe it.” Fai tried to sweep past Kurogane again.

“ _I_ don’t believe it.” Kurogane grabbed Fai’s wrist tightly and the blond winced in pain as the dark-haired swordsman pulled him backwards. “I told you before that I wasn’t leaving here without the kid, and not without you either. I don’t care about misfortune and bad luck and all that stupid, useless crap you keep talking about. You’re coming back with me and you are going to live your damn life or I’m going to kill you myself.”

Kurogane finally let go of Fai’s wrist and turned to leave with the air of one who had just won an argument.

“Kurogane…” Fai murmured softly behind him.

Kurogane stopped walking, his back turned to Fai, and when he spoke his voice was so quiet Fai almost didn’t hear him.

“And stop calling me that.”

Fai stared at him in shock for a moment before a slow smile crept over his face. Kurogane suddenly felt thin arms wrap themselves around his shoulders from behind.

“So what should I call you?” Fai chirped, leaning over Kurogane’s shoulder. “Kuro-tan? Kuro-rin? Kuro-pi? Which do you like best?”

“I don’t like any of them!” Kurogane snapped.

“What?” Fai pouted. “But you just said not to call you ‘Kurogane’ anymore. Hey, tell me which one is best, okay? Kuro-kichi? Kuro-puu? Kuro-pyon, Kuro-ki, Kuro-popo, Kuro-pan, Kuro-sama, Kuro-chin…”

“I didn’t say that and I hate them all!” Kurogane growled, detaching himself from Fai.

“You did, you did! I heard you! Kuro-pyon’s a liar,” Fai sang.

“So are you,” Kurogane snorted. “Leave me alone.” The hallway in front of him opened up into two different forks, and he paused.

“Kuro-pin…” Fai appeared next to him. “Are you maybe lost?”

“I am _not_ lost!” Kurogane stated.

“Then which way leads back to where Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun are?”

Kurogane didn’t answer, silently cursing whatever bastard made the stupid castle.

“You don’t know,” Fai said triumphantly. “Poor, poor Kuro-pin, I had no idea you were so bad with directions. Come on, I’ll help you.” He grabbed Kurogane’s wrist and led him towards the far path. Fai glanced back at Kurogane’s irritated face and smiled. “Since we’re going home together, after all.”

“Hmmph. All right.” Kurogane allowed himself to be led. “But stop calling me by those stupid nicknames.”

“But you _said--”_

 _“I did not!”_

\--

They walked out into the castle courtyard together. The sun was bright above and the light reflected off the snow-covered ground. Birds chirped loudly from the trees, and there was the unmistakable feel of _life_ from everything.

The sleigh sat in the center of the courtyard, the wolves harnessed and half-seen, fading a bit in the sunlight. Sakura was sitting in the front of the sleigh with Syaoran, who was listening intently as King Ashura gave him final instructions.

“Just hold onto the reins so that they don’t get away from you,” the king was saying. “I’ve told the wolves where to go. They will deliver you safely.” The king looked up as Fai and Kurogane entered.

“Kurogane-san! Fai-san!” Sakura waved to them as they came closer. The white cat in Sakura’s lap looked up and blinked lazily in the sun.

Fai smiled at her before walking over to King Ashura. In one fluid movement, Fai swept off his tattered cloak and offered it to the king, bowing.

King Ashura took the cloak wordlessly, placing a hand on Fai’s head.

“King Ashura…” Fai trailed off, his eyes low. “I--”

“I know. There’s a place you belong.” The king forced Fai to look up at him. His smile was kind and Fai’s breath caught in his throat. “But I will miss you. Have a safe journey.”

“Yes.” Fai nodded, managing a small, wistful smile. “Thank you, King Ashura.”

Kurogane crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree, looking away. Fai glanced back at him and laughed.

“Don’t be jealous, Kuro-pi!” Fai grabbed Kurogane by the arms and pulled him into the back of the sleigh. “I still love you best.”

“I don’t care,” Kurogane said. “Stop dragging me into your stupidity.”

“Are you coming with us then, Fai-san?” Sakura asked.

“Yes,” Fai replied, nodding his head. “I couldn’t leave poor Kuro-chi all alone by himself, you know. He’s such a handful; someone has to take care of him.” He winked at Sakura. “And I heard Sakura-chan’s present went bad. Since that was my fault, I’ll make you and Syaoran-kun a new one, all right? A beautiful welcome home cake.”

“Fai-san…” Sakura took his hand for a moment, looking at him intently. After a moment her face brightened. “I’m happy you don’t look so lonely anymore. You’re all right?”

“I’m all right,” Fai promised. “Thank you, Sakura-chan.” Sakura let go of his hand and Fai leaned into Kurogane. “Ah, Sakura-chan? I’ve got to take care of Kuro-pin now, so why don’t you keep Mokona? As my apology.”

“Are you sure? It’s Fai-san’s cat,” Sakura said.

“You paid for it, too,” Fai reminded her.

“ _I_ paid for it, you mean,” Kurogane grumbled. Fai elbowed him hard in the ribs and smiled winningly at Sakura.

“Hmm? What did you say, Kurogane-san?” Sakura asked.

“Kuro-pin said he wants you to have Mokona too,” Fai lied smoothly. “Kuro-puu’s very nice like that.”

Kurogane snorted and looked pointedly away from all of them.

King Ashura laughed quietly.

“Yes, I think you will be fine after all,” he said to Fai. “Be well, my Fai.”

The king waved a hand the wolves leapt into the air. Sakura gave a quiet squeak as they rose, holding Mokona tight in one hand and grabbing Syaoran’s arm with the other. Syaoran turned bright red and gamely held tight to the reins.

Fai leaned over the side and watched until the castle had disappeared.

\--

The land below flashed by, white on white, then slowly patches of color began to show. A patch of grass, a small gathering of flowers, trees, bushes, deep woods and warm meadows, and the sleigh moved steadily onwards. Sakura and Syaoran watched as the scenery flew past, but in the back of the sleigh Kurogane was quiet and unmoving.

Fai was asleep with his head on Kurogane’s shoulder, and Kurogane didn’t move.

Sakura cried out as the scenery grew more familiar and the sound made Fai stir. As the blond rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Kurogane looked down at the manor house on the hill and then the town below, growing closer by the moment.

They landed in the same town square the sleigh had left from what seemed like so long ago, but this time the ground was warm and the sky was a bright clear blue. People below scattered and stared as they touched down light as a cloud, and Syaoran let the reins fall from his hands, hurriedly exiting the sleigh so that he could help Sakura down.

The voices of the townspeople grew louder and more surprised as Sakura stepped down, and then there was some commotion nearby and her brother came storming through the crowd, with the look of someone who didn’t know if he should hug a person or kill them. Lord Touya’s advisor Yukito walked behind him, making calming motions. Sakura saw them coming and smiled brightly, waving. Syaoran stayed loyally by her side but was clearly bracing himself for impending doom. Kurogane grabbed the still-groggy Fai by the wrist and dragged him off before they could get caught in the inevitable sibling fight.

“Kuro-pon, that _hurts_ ,” Fai whined as Kurogane dragged him through the streets. Kurogane released Fai’s wrist and stopped in front of the door the bakery, still shut tight.

“We’ll need all new ingredients, won’t we?” Fai murmured, staring at the shut door. “And you’ll need to clean the dust, of course.”

“ _I’ll_ need to clean it?” Kurogane muttered.

“Well, you’re my hired help, right?” Fai said brightly. “And there’s so much for you to do! Let’s see, you need to dust and sweep and I bet there’s rats in the storeroom by now you’ll have to chase out since I gave Mokona to Sakura-chan, and then I’ll need all new ingredients so I can start baking again and--”

“Get them yourself,” Kurogane stated. “I’m going home and going to bed.” He turned to leave, and Fai grabbed his hand.

“Hey, Kuro-rin?” Fai said softly. “Stay with me, all right?”

“Hmmph.” Kurogane snorted but didn’t make any further move to leave. “All right. You idiot.”

Fai just smiled, and together they walked inside.

Outside a warm wind blew, and the flowers reached up to welcome the spring.


End file.
